Post on 21-Feb-2017
Sangeeta DevniIIMB, IVLP, SLP
5 W’s of Mentors
Why Who Where What When
Steve JobsWhy
Bill Gates & Warren Buffet Why
Why
“A smart man makes a mistake, learns from it, and never makes that mistake again. But a wise man finds a smart man and learns from him how to avoid the mistake altogether.”
Why
Mentor will not validate your product, but can guide you with specific challenges in your business
Mentors will not do the work for you, they will be only the sounding boards to bounce your ideas with.
Relationship grows with time, and organically
Look for an expert rather than a generalist
Who
Where to find -
Books, Blogs, Social media & Meetups
References Accelerators, Incubators
and e-Cells Corporate events & lunches Twitter, Quora & LinkedIn
“When People Are Like Each Other, They Tend To Like Each Other”
Where
Start with these three basic steps:
1. Go find 3 people in your space that you admire and want to learn from
2. Consume their work: Books, Podcasts (See if they have been interviewed on other podcasts), Courses, Blogs, Video.
3. Use their advice and take ACTION
Send your new mentors an email telling them how much they have changed your life. They will seriously appreciate you, trust me.
What
Be creative in approaching a mentor, for god sake don’t send emails to strangers.
BE a sponge, absorb all the knowledge and wisdom from all the people you meet.
Try to mentor those who are less experienced than you. You will notice that helping others is a way of helping oneself.
What
When
Stages of a startup
Validation
Idea
Product Design Development
GTM
Growth
Funding Exit
Product-market fit
When
Take off is what I wish for you all!