A mentor is someone who can guide, support, advise you towards your goals and through your journey towards them. There are a lot of reasons and factors that can go wrong when looking for a mentor.
Before beginning, you should understand that if you don’t have a mentor, it doesn’t mean you can not do anything or everything that you do is nothing but waste your time.
Stop treating not having a mentor as an excuse to waste your time, and stop putting all your efforts, time and resources into finding a mentor instead of putting in the work. Else it will be nothing but another example of Shaving the Yak.
Here are 5 Reasons why Mentors can Destroy Your Career
So Less, Yet Too Many Option
There are too many wannabe mentors out there, even people who haven’t ever achieved something in life wants to be a mentor. Finding a mentor who would actually support you and work along with you towards achieving your goals is incredibly hard to find. Moreover being compatible with each other is another issue that would come up in the foreseeable future when started working together.
Lack of Interest
Mentors won’t be interested in you and your work unless they are really passionate about the work you are doing or have some mutual interest. So with a lack of interest, you won’t find them being that involved and the guidance provided might not be too feasible or appropriate for you. This would compound over a period of time and you are most likely to end up in a bad situation.
Too much Reliance
Mentors are good, but being dependent and completely reliant on them is something that can backfire very fast. There can be a lot of scenarios where you can’t go to him, like
They doesn’t want to be a mentor anymore.
Are unavailable due to personal matters.
God forbid, they die.
Have too many mentee(e)
Refuses to help
Self-Interest and Jealousy
There usually comes a time when an athlete surpasses the glamour of a coach. Now a good coach/ mentor will be your biggest cheerleader, perhaps after your mom, but a mentor who doesn’t have the right mindset usually starts getting jealous of the fame and success that you have achieved and might even act in his own self-interest to harm you and/or your work. So know when to leave the shadow of the mentor to find a different one.
Mentor v/s Successful People
Just like not every athlete isn’t a good coach similarly understand that not every successful person can be a good mentor. So you’ll have to try a few different mentors to understand and realize what suits you, your goals, and your mindset well. Don’t be afraid to play around and research about your mentor and their previous experience with their mentee.
Lack of Time Commitment
You won’t be able to achieve great things in a matter of weeks, months, and even years, so a mentor will have to give you a long time commitment to work along with you. Now you will probably find mentors who give up easily on people and might not even be interested in that field of interest and work after a few years if not months.
Now I am not saying that they won’t have the expertise, I am saying that you might not find him that involved after a period of time.
They have a LOT of Mentees
Find a mentor who only has a limited number of mentees and doesn’t do mentorship just for living. This usually rules out the companies providing a mentor. Find people who are truly devoted towards teaching and guiding because they want to, not because they need to.
Mentors can be your greatest asset as well as your biggest curse so be careful when picking one, be wise and patient when finding the right one.
All the best !!!