Mirror or lighthouse - A quick guide to become the best mentor you can be

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Mirror or lighthouse a quick guide to Become the best mentor you can be

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By Noam Kostucki and Lujie Chen

Mirror or Lighthouse. A quick guide to become the best mentor you can be

!!!!!!!!!First published in 2014 on www.amazon.com

Mirror or Lighthouse - A quick guide to become the best mentor you can be by Noam Kostucki and Lujie Chen

Edited by Michael Moscrop, Pizza Press

Page ! of ! by Noam Kostucki and Lujie Chen 2 55


Dear Mentor,!You're reading this because you are good at what you do and when you do something you want to do it well. If you’re going to mentor someone, you want to do it the best you can. !We have written a book called Seek to Keep on how to find the best mentors and keep them. During our interviews with over 20 successful people who have had mentors and who now mentor others, we collected stories and tips to be great mentors. !You want to become a mentor or someone approach you to become their mentor. If someone want you to be their mentor, it means that they believe you can help them grow: you must be very inspiring and a great role model for someone to have taken a step towards asking for you to mentor them. !The person who has given you this section has come a long way since starting to read this book. She/he has reflected on her/himself and overcome fears to approach you. !By getting you to read this short chapter, she/he hopes to show you s/he is committed to grow as a fabulous individual. She/he is dedicated and ready to learn. !This book is about finding the best mentors in life and advice on how to keep them. !

by Noam Kostucki and Lujie Chen Page ! of ! 3 55


We realize that you may be confused as to what is expected of you as a mentor, or that you may want to refresh your thoughts on how to be the best mentor possible. !We want to help you kick start the conversation with your potential mentee. We want to give you the tools to make the relationship pleasurable and fruitful for both you, and the person who contacted you. !Your time is precious and if you commit to help a potential mentee, we want to give you some support. If you've already mentored others, it may not be necessary to continue reading, unless you would like some reminders. If you've never mentored anyone, we'll give you the basic tools to do it fabulously while enjoying this relationship. !!!!!!!!



Table of Content !

1. EXPECTATIONS AND YOUR ROLE AS A MENTOR 6

HOW WILL YOU SPEND MOST OF YOUR TIME AS A MENTOR? 7 WHAT TIME COMMITMENT WILL IT REQUIRE FROM YOU? 9

2. BENEFITS OF BEING A MENTOR 11

3. PREPARING FOR THE FIRST CONVERSATION 25

4. FOOD FOR CONVERSATIONS 37

5. INTERVIEWEES PROFILES 42

6. ABOUT THE AUTHORS 53


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1. Expectations and Your Role as

a Mentor


As a mentor, you will help the person who contacted you move forward in life. This may be purely on a professional basis, or also to grow as a great human being. She/he may have chosen you because of a certain aspect of your life that they want to learn from, or for the way you are as a person. Ask her/him if you're not sure: she/he should have already told you what they find inspiring in you. !As a mentor, you are a teacher and a guide. They're not asking you to make decisions for them or to act like a mum or dad. Two useful ways of thinking about yourself as a mentor is either as a mirror and as a lighthouse. !As a mirror, you will reflect to your mentee their own image by asking questions, paraphrasing what they say or sharing your personal experience. You will give them a chance to see themselves differently and better understand their desires, worries and needs. !As a lighthouse, you give them different points of references, by sharing stories, recommending books, documentaries or introductions to different people you know, and you will give them a range of reference points they can navigate through. They must still decide on the course they take, all you're doing is helping them to see where they can go.

How will you spend most of your time as a mentor?

Have conversations with your mentee. They look up to you and it’s up to you to set the tone and atmosphere. Some mentors like to talk over the phone or Skype because it reduces their travel time, others like to talk over meals because they're casual and allow for longer conversations without taking time off your work, family or leisure schedules. Feel free to invite your mentees to your office or your home:



it is important you make it easy and convenient for you. You can also change the set up depending on your work and lifestyle: you may have some sessions in the same physical location and some online via Skype or Google Hangouts. You may also want to meet in locations that have different atmospheres and meaning for you: you can chose to invite your mentee to professional you're attending, or even go for a walk in the forest, fishing, golf, or casual event you’re organizing. !TAKE A MOMENT TO THINK ABOUT THE CONTEXT IN WHICH YOU WOULD PREFER TO HAVE CONVERSATIONS. !WHAT ARE THE MOST CONVENIENT LOCATION FOR YOU TO MEET A POTENTIAL MENTEE?

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AT TIME OF THE DAY / WEEK / MONTH ARE YOU MOST FREE? WHEN DO YOU HAVE THE MOST HEADSPACE TO TALK WITH A POTENTIAL MENTEE?

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What time commitment will it require from you?

The beauty of a good mentoring relationship is that you commitment to as much as you want. It’s their role to make your time worth spending with them. If your mentee has read the book Seek to Keep - How to Find Mentors and Keep Them, they’re getting more than one mentor, which means they’re not solely



dependent on you. You don't have the added pressure of feeling that you're letting them down, if you can't see your mentee for an extended period of time for personal or professional reasons. Your mentees know that you are busy and they will get back in touch with you when you are more available. !In the later chapters, we'll explain to them how to keep you wanting to meet them. You can guide them, and sometimes take the lead, but of course they need to adapt to you. !Tell your mentee what your availability is if they haven’t yet asked. If you tell them in advance when you'll be busy, that's fine. All that matters is to have a date in the agenda, and don't feel bad if you put it two months in advance: they can survive without you, and the hour they'll spend with you will be worth the wait.


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2. Benefits of Being a Mentor

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Take a moment to reflect on the mentors who have guided you: !Do you remember who inspired you, or gave you great advice when you were the same age as the person who contacted you? Who are the people who have guided you to become what you are now? What conversations were the most significant in shaping the way you live your life or in your professional achievements?

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Imagine that now someone wants you to take that role, to step into the shoes of the great people who shaped your life. Mentoring is surprisingly fulfilling because it gives you the opportunity to help someone else in a similar way as you've been helped. !

"Every time I mentor someone, I feel that I get as much out of the relationship as my mentees do. I learn from

their approach and what they know that I don't. I learn from guiding them in finding their own solutions to their

challenges or opportunities. As a result, I sometimes end up using the solutions they've come up with, myself.

I find it extremely inspiring to see someone else achieve more than they initially thought possible, thanks to a few

conversations with me. They also remind me about being as great as I can be: I feel motivated to live up to their

expectations and to walk the talk."

- Noam Kostucki

When someone looks up to you and you've got a chance to influence them, it's an amazing privilege. You can't mentor everyone who asks, but those you do mentor, you will probably remember them for a long time to come. A lot of mentoring relationships become a friendship as the mentee requires less direct support. Mentors often say that the biggest reward is to see your mentee succeed and being happy thanks to their help. !



Besides this feeling of fulfillment, if you've got a good connection with your mentee, each meeting will be pleasurable and interesting break from your daily routine. !Lastly, the more you mentor, the more you will discover how much you can learn from your mentee. She/he may also be able to help you with her/his skills, ideas or time. !If you don't think that you are the right person, or that you don't have the time, mindset or energy to have a couple of conversations at the moment, you can now close this book and let your mentee know. If you are ready to join your mentee on her/his journey, we have a few more exercises for you. !You may want to put the previous reflections in writing: who were / are the greatest teachers or mentors in your life?

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What did you learn or gain from these people / relationships? How have they benefited you?

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What characteristics did your mentors have? What made them so special to you?

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Isights from our interviewees on mentoring styles "Mentoring runs a fine line between a service-based economy and a social skill. There was the old leisure model

where people just traveled in herds for drinks or golf or time-consuming shows of decadence together, to the

exclusion of other experiences. It was incredibly overcomplicated and slowly over time you would inevitably have

a few conversations about business -- within the first three meetings if you were lucky. I don't think that's the

model that I want to follow personally. I work all the time, I value my time, and that's how I get to do so many

things I love. The mentors I have all work the same way. They have circles of personal friends and I'm lucky

enough to have graduated into a few of them -- but when we go into business mode, I make it quick. We're

willing to help, but we are not your parents. You are responsible. If you want to retain a mentor, you recognize

that as well.



To set the right pace, all my advisees have predictable meeting times, which is actually just a polite way of giving

us deadlines. We might start with once a week, and my question is simply, 'What are your challenges' 'what have

you done' and 'have you met your goals?' And that's what I care about when we start. As a human being, I can

figure out when someone is not on the track they want to be on, and I can jump out of business mode and say

'hey, at a personal level, what's going on?' -- but that's not the relationship that we set out to have -- first and

foremost it's business-based.

So the relationship I offer is definitely not parental. I do whatever I can to keep you from failing, and then I push

you off the ledge to make you fly. That's equal opportunity, and that's how a successful business venture works.

Things happen so fast that you just have to get people used to progressing at a useful speed before they second

guess themselves -- or each other."

- Melody Ward

"(Referring to his mentee on boxing) One of the things I get people to do is to write a letter to their parents and

seal it in an envelope, detailing why they've failed. In it, e.g. 'Dear Dad, I failed at this because I continue to eat junk



food, I decided to hang out with friends rather than stay in and get some rest, I decided to have a relationship

which took me away from training etc. and I'm sorry that I've not only let myself down, but you as well.'

It's quite a powerful letter, I make them write. And the fact is I want you to be in the position where you never

ever give it to your family. That makes you train harder. And I review at regular intervals 'Have you given that to

your dad yet? No? Okay, we're on track.'"

- David Villa-Clarke

"I think a lot of it is about having conversations with people. The biggest growth happens when you can sit them

down, one on one or in small groups, and work with them. I see every one of those conversations going through 3

steps:

1) Assessment: Talk to them to find out what's going on, what they are working on.

2) Challenge: Can you do this differently? Are there new ways of doing things?

Sometimes I challenge them. If everything you want to have happened happens tomorrow, how will the world be

different and how will you be acting differently. Then they suddenly realized that the stuff that they need to do,



the changes that they need to make in their lives are not that large, and they can actually start doing them now.

Asking coaching questions is very powerful.

3) Support: Not support as in becoming a crutch for them. But, you need them to know that if they are

frustrated, if they are troubled about things, they have someone to go to. And mentors can play an important

role in that respect."

- Aaron Maniam

Identify teaching moments and spend enough time "There's one set of things that's about real-time feedback - specific, actionable and in situation where you try to

do it as real time as possible. Those are teaching moments. And then I think more longitudinally, over time you

try to understand that person and you spend sufficient time with them. Ultimately it's about spending time

together and having explicit feedback and long discussions with them. Spending dedicated time, [mentoring] is not

a five minute session or an email."

- Tony Tjan



Asking questions, sharing experiences, but not giving the answers "Some people have turned me down as a mentor because they are expecting someone to give them the answer,

and I will never, ever do that. If you want somebody to tell you the answers, you have bigger problems than

anything I can help you with. If you want someone to tell you the answer, it won't be me."

- Fiona Clark

"The key is that the mentor asks some of the questions, is slow to give advice, and doesn't step in and solve

problems for the mentee. They need to become skilled at facilitating the process of asking a lot of questions.

When a mentee asks a question, the mentor's first response to answer that question may be to ask their own

question. In this way, the mentees will soon learn that they will not get the direct answers and they have to do

the work, they have to do the thinking. In addition, the mentors should be slow to give advice. They should only

give advice if it's clear that the mentees cannot come out with the answer themselves or they don't have the

experience to draw on. Even if mentors give the answer, it should not be given it in a directive way, like 'this is

what you should do'. Instead, it should be given as an option, or 'here's what I've done, it worked for me. What do

you think? What could you do? So, they are actually building possibilities together rather than solving or telling."



- Ann Rolfe

"Principally, the questions need to be open ended. It's their space. The mentors are there to support. The mentors

have to totally put their ego to one side and just be there for the person. The biggest mistake that many of us

make is that we want to get our word in. And that ruins people's thinking. Non interruption is the key to quality

thinking.

The difference between offering advice and sharing experience is when you present a problem; if I say ‘what

you should do is … …’ that's giving advice. What I will say is 'Hmm… that's interesting, I've had a situation once

where … …' and then probably conclude it by saying, 'Is that helpful? Now what?' Putting it back constantly to the

mentee."

- Nigel Cutts

"It's a combination of asking questions and sharing experiences. Challenge people to think about challenging

situations and difficult problems. Get people to stretch themselves - making sure they have professional

challenges that are slightly above their current capability, so they can move up relatively quickly, and mentally



challenge people both in a formal or informal basis - get them to think about difficult problems or interests

situation, so they can have personal growth through sharing my own experience on how I dealt with similar

situations in the past."

- Douglas Abrams

"One of the best types of questions I've gotten is people who ask you 'Why?'

If you said 'I want to do this', they say 'Okay, why?'

'Because I believe in this'

'Why do you believe in this?'

'Because of this and this and this'

'But why?'



They actually get you to think. And the way they guide you is through those types of questions. It's not necessary

that they are telling you 'You do A, you will get to B, and after you get to B, you will get to C and I think you

should become this and that."

- Yoseph Ayele

It depends on the person "That depends on other structures around the relationship. In cases when I mentor entrepreneurs, they usually

approach me. If I'm mentoring staff, I will engage them at a more regular basis – sometimes I will approach

them and other times they will approach me."

- Douglas Abrams

"It depends on the person. Different people, different strokes. Certain people just need to be propped in a certain

direction and they run. Yet, there are also some people whom you can't give them a direction, as it may lead to

over-reliance and dependence. For people who are younger, I will share my personal account, experiences, and

inspire him first before giving him the tools. For some of my clients who are more competent and confident and



sometimes overly confident, that's when I pose them questions – 'Have you covered your ground? Why are you

so sure that this will happen? Have you not considered this and that? I’d challenge their assumptions and context

and be their devil’s advocate.

I also use a skill-will matrix to better manage my mentee. Skill is the competency of the mentee; vis –a-vis the

competencies required for his project, Will is the willingness, inherent motivation. With that, you know how to

work best with the client. Sometimes you need to be a motivator, sometimes you need to challenge him. I usually

profile my mentee, if it's the first time we meet, I will profile him by the questions he asks, his body language.

Then I know what works best."

- Benjamin Loh

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3. Preparing for the First

Conversation !


You can be reassured that if your mentee has read the book Seek to Keep - How to Find the Best Mentors and Keep Them, we’ve made it clear throughout the book that your mentee must take responsibility for the relationship, and that they must be proactive. We don't want you to feel that you have babysit anyone. If your mentee hasn’t read the book, encouraging them to read it will help prepare them better to be a good mentee. !Once they have completed all exercises in the book, browsing through their answers will give you an insight as to the kind of self-reflection your mentee has already gone through with us. You will understand better their goals, motivations and fears. !Here’s a bit of help to plan the relationship so that you also get what you want out of it. In your very first mentoring conversation, you want to set a few ground rules. !Run through this exercise to clarify what you want from the relationship and what you can offer. !What do you expect from your mentee and what can they expect from you?

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How much time can you commit? How can your mentee best reach you? How often will you meet? What dates can you already put in the agenda?

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What’s your story? Tell him/her about the most significant events of your past, what defines you in the present and where you're heading in the future. They don’t know your life as well as you do, and giving them insights into your journey will help them understand you better.

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Tell your mentee about what motivates you: what drives you and what do you want? What do you want to get out of this relationship? What are your desires and fears?

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What were your biggest successes and what did you learn from them?

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What were your biggest failures and what did you learn from them?

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What are your top 3 tips or advice in life and/or business?

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You can now ask them to answer all the above questions, too. Record what they tell you so that you can get back to it in the future. !What does you mentee expect from you? What motivates your mentee? What drives her/him and what does she/he want? What do they want to get out of this relationship? What are her/his desires and fears? Get your mentee to share the most significant events of her/his past; what defines her/him in the present and where she/he's heading in the future.

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What are your mentee’s goals?

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How can you help them achieve their dreams and get over their fears and obstacles?

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Your first meeting can now continue with a nice conversation, talking about what the two of you enjoy talking about. Don't be obliged to talk only about work and the professional side of your life. Feel free to open up about your personal life and to be interested in your mentee as a full human being. !Make sure that you finish your meeting with an agreement on the next time you'll meet. It may be a good idea to check that your mentee is writing a list of actions to take as they have learnt to do from reading Seek to Keep. !


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4. Food for Conversations

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As your mentoring relationship grows, you will want to explore different topics because you don’t want to go around in circle. !To help you get started with your next conversations, here’s a list of ideas to explore different directions. !

1. Challenge your mentee by asking the tough questions. You're in a position in which you can ask questions that will encourage your mentee to think about what's important for them.

Make a list of the most thought provoking questions you have been asked or that you believe will get your mentee thinking.

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!2. Ask open questions that encourage your mentee to explore their dreams and desires:

a. If you had a magic wand and could change one thing, what would it be? What would be the result? Why is it important to you? How can you make that happen? What are you missing and how can you get it?



b. What do you want? After hearing the answer, ask "why do you want that"? Then ask for the new answer "why do you want that?" and do this five times, you'll get to the bottom of why your mentee really want what she/he wants. You can now focus on helping him/her achieve it.

c. What have been your biggest learning / most important moments in your past?

d. What do you want the future to look like?

e. How do you want people to look at you? What do you want them to think of you?

f. What do you think of yourself?

g. What do you enjoy doing most?

h. What do you like doing least?

i. What are you scared about? What do you fear?

3. Ask your mentee if they have any questions they want to ask you. What do they want to know that they’re afraid of asking?

4. Keep telling them your story: what were the most important turning points in your life? What were your lowest moments and what were your biggest highs? What did you learn? What do you regret not doing and what are you most happy that you did do? Tell them about your dreams, hope, fears and worries. Tell them stories from your life and people who told you stories when you were her/his age. Then get them to think about these stories and reflect to build their own opinions.

5. Tell them about your work. You may want to invite them into your office to shadow you for a couple of hours; you may want to invite them to events that you attend or to simply show them how you work. Tell them about the projects you're working on and what excites you about them. Ask for her/his opinion and see whether you can find a way for them to help you.



6. Find out how they are doing in both their professional and/or personal life. It's often a good icebreaker to also talk about personal life. It helps build a deeper relationship.

7. You may also want to suggest some books, documentaries, movies, and other sources of knowledge, experience and information. You may want to introduce them to friends over food to teach them how to expand their horizon and network of contacts.

8. You may want to ask them what they've done since the last time you talked and what they're planning to do until the next time you meet. This helps start and close your meetings, as well as making them more accountable for their action points.

!The rest of the relationship is about giving time to time. As you meet with your mentee, you will develop a sense of what works best for you and for them. Don’t try to be anything else than you are: they trust you to be yourself with them and there is no need to pretend. Be natural, and allow yourself to be the inspiration they look for. !

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are

powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually,

who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve

the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't



feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born

to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's

in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people

permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence

automatically liberates others.”

- Marianne Williamson

!!!!!!We wish you all the best in your journey as mentors. !If you have any questions, you can reach us via www.seektokeep.com !Noam and Lujie


http://www.seektokeep.com

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5. Interviewees Profiles


Aaron Maniam Aaron is a civil servant, and has worked at the Foreign Service, the Strategic Policy Office of the Public Service Division and the Institute of Public Sector Leadership at the Civil Service College, Singapore. He is an award-winning poet and was conferred the Singapore Youth Award 2012. He is actively involved in youth leadership initiatives, including coordinating the “Leadership Incubator” of MENDAKI Club and chairing the Singapore Indian Development Association (SINDA)’s Youth Club. As Chairman of the Advisory Panel for the National Youth Council (NYC) Academy, he was instrumental in steering the Academy’s development in its nascent years and was at the center of its key programs. He was identified by the World Economic Forum as a Young Global Leader in 2013.

Ann Rolfe Ann Rolfe is Australia’s most published author on mentoring and has over twenty-five years’ experience in learning and development. For the last fifteen years, Ann Rolfe has specialized in helping organizations and individuals enjoy the benefits of mentoring. She is the founder of Mentoring Works and her training programs and resources are used internationally to develop and support mentoring.

Benjamin Loh Benjamin is the Founder and Principal Trainer at Speaker’s Flare Training & Consultancy. At the age of 26 years old, he has been investing the past five years for self-education in the art and science of connecting with successful individuals and building a Personal Board of Directors (BoD) comprising Directors of Public Listed Companies, adjunct faculties, media personalities, leading social entrepreneurs and successful business owners. As a Cross-Generational Speaker and an Executive Speech Coach, he answers the big questions on how to lead across generations at corporations as well as empower senior executives on how to speak and present at their best.



Benjamin is also probably the youngest Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and Certified Reiss Profile® Master in Singapore and possibly Asia Pacific. His work in entrepreneurship, public speaking and activism have been featured on over 30 occasions on over 10 media platforms like Channel News Asia (CNA), Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), Straits Times (ST), The New Paper (TNP), Lian He Zao Bao (LHZB), Sunday Times, Business Times (BT), News938 Live and Gold 90.5 FM.

Chee Wah Chong Chee Wah is a Founder and CEO of TreeBox Solutions, which specialises in secure mobile communications for enterprises. He also co-founded Clearbridge Accelerator, which is an Asian based Venture Capital firm with interest in investing early stage and highly disruptive technologies. Being a serial entrepreneur, Chee Wah has founded 11 different companies in Biomedical, Information Security and Materials space. Chee Wah is also a professional practioner in Information Security space and is an accredited Security Evaluator in Singapore's IT Evaluation Scheme. Chee Wah has led TreeBox Solutions to a Gold Award in Singapore IT Federation (SiTF) 2013 Award and is a strong believer of lean startup. He is passionate on disruptive and innovative ideas that can bring significant impact to the society. Besides being a technical speaker in various Information Security seminars, Chee Wah also gave talks to motivate students in his free time.

David King Thorairajan David King Thorairajan is the Executive Director and Founder of Ministry of Empowerment (an International Life Coaching Company) and is a renowned Motivational Speaker in Singapore. He won international awards-The Outstanding Young Persons (TOYP) International Award 2013 (based in US) and Duke Of Edinburgh’s International Award 2013 (based in UK), and also national awards like Stars of Shine National Award Winner (2010), National Youth Achievement Award (Bronze and Silver, 2006-2007). David King is also an Author and Educator, Social Entrepreneur, WSQ Certified 'A.C.T.A' Trainer; N.L.P Certified Practitioner and, most importantly, Personal Development and Life Coach (Parents & Youths & Youth-at-Risk).



David Villa Clarke David Villa-Clarke works in the Financial Services Industry. He specializes in the field of Wealth Management, working for Towry as their Acquisition Manager. David’s role is to purchase IFA businesses to join the Towry success story. Throughout his career David has successfully built and managed high-performing teams. He says: “The secret to successful performance is to mentor your employees to achieve their personal and professional objectives. Work on their strengths and create a culture of personal responsibility by challenging for growth.” David is also the Chairman and Founder of Project Volunteer, a charity in its seventh year that helps over 500 orphans living in Botswana. Project Volunteer encourages people from the UK to give up a week of their working life to spend time making a difference with the orphaned children living in SOS Children’s Villages in Botswana.

Dexter Dash Dexter is the President of Junior Chambers International (JCI) London and was the Special Projects Director for TEDxSquareMile. He was also JCI National Project Leader for ACE, Active Citizen Experience. He is a designer at RTKL, a global architecture, planning and design practice committed to enriching lives and designing solutions to the complex issues of our time.

Douglas Abrams Douglas is the CEO at Expara and Expara IDM Ventures, and Partner at Extream Ventures. Extream Ventures was established in Singapore in 2008. It is a $20 million early-stage venture capital fund focused on Asia-based technologically driven companies in the areas of communications, IT software and solutions, and interactive and digital media (IDM). Before setting up his first business in Singapore in 2000, he was at JP Morgan for 14 years. !by Noam Kostucki and Lujie Chen Page ! of ! 45 55


Fiona Clark Fiona has extensive mentoring experience, with mentees spanning across both private sector and public service. Her mentees include chief executives and heads of businesses whom she worked closely with while providing client centric consulting in PWC and IBM.

James Eder James is the Founder & Head of New Business of The Beans Group. The Beans Group’s original and flagship website is studentbeans.com, a lifestyle portal for university students which includes the latest deals and discounts, money-saving advice and entertaining articles. With over 2 million unique visitors each month and widespread brand recognition in UK student households, studentbeans.com is officially the nation’s top website for 16-24s (Nielsen Online).

Luke Barbara Luke Barbara is the Founder of TreinaLink, which focuses on empowering people and transforming organizations through training and development. Prior to cofounding TreinaLink, Luke worked with machinery in Brazil and internet startups and biotechnology in the USA. Luke studied Chemical Engineering, Entrepreneurship, and International Development at The Ohio State University. During his time in university he organized the Alleviating Poverty through Entrepreneurship (APTE) Summit. Luke is a StartingBloc Fellow and an Artemisia Entrepreneur. !www.LukeBarbara.com !



Mark S. Powell Mark Powell is the currently the Business Head for Praesta International in East Asia. Praesta is the world’s leading senior executive coaching & mentoring company. Praesta has worked with over 6000 senior executives across 25 countries. Mark has previously held senior line management positions in business banking, debt markets, and funds management for Citibank and Macquarie Bank in Australia. He has also launched two start-up businesses that were subsequently sold to larger companies. More recently, Mark operated his own boutique executive search firm with offices in Hong Kong and Singapore, conducting senior-level searches across 9 countries in Asia. He has spoken at regional forums on executive assessment, career management, and leadership.

Melody Ward Ms. Ward is a serial entrepreneur and business analyst who started her first company at the age of eighteen. A former Guardian Ad Litem caseworker and advisor for several anti-hate organizations, she’s the technical advisor for a private philanthropic organization and for Music & Memory, a nonprofit organization donating digital music players to the elderly. A long-time correspondent for Ziff Davis Media and former eCommerce Manager for Baseline Magazine and CIO Insight, she was a media producer for HOW and International Design, as well as an interview host for the HOW Design Conference webcast series. She is based in New York.

Mihai Mafteianu Mihai is a serial entrepreneur and philanthropist. He founded Cronian Academy, a university startup accelerator, along with the University of Bucharest, where he works with students on helping them acquire the necessary skills to be competitive in the startup world. Mihai is also advising and mentoring startups at multiple accelerator programs across Europe as well as angel-investing in early stage internet companies.



Moonshi Mohsenruddin Moonshi is Founder & CEO of CommGate, a CRM & Web Applications Consulting company, and the Director & Principal Mentor of Echelon Minds, a transformational training company that provides corporate sales training and business mentoring. Moonshi became an entrepreneur celebrity in 2010 when Channel News Asia interviewed and published his story. He is a sought after speaker at many entrepreneur events, was interviewed on Singaporean national radio and television, The Sunday Times, and has appeared in magazines and other business publications. He started business mentoring for start-ups since Oct-2010 and has since mentored a total of 26 companies whom have at least achieved up to 700% revenue growth. Other areas of his mentoring include values-alignment, self & team awareness, management structure, growth strategies, business & financial modeling and sales processes.

Nigel Cutts Nigel has 45 years of high level business experience, with many qualifications in conflict resolution, coaching, mentoring, training and personal development. He is also a Principal and Leadership Consultant at ‘Cutts and Cons’, which provides personal coaching, mentoring and counseling. His books Love at Work and The Little Book of Love at Work are much acclaimed. Nowadays he devotes most of his time to speaking on and teaching Leadership skills through the Love at Work Foundation, an organization devoted to the development of human understanding in the workplace.

Noam Kostucki Noam Kostucki is a professional speaker, coach and consultant on communication, strategy and innovation. He believes that everything can be turned into an art form, whether be public speaking, building a brand or running a business. Over the last decade, he has engaged with over 20,000 people in 12 countries. He worked with multinational clients like HP and Tata Consultancy Services.



!He has made over 45 media appearances, gave two TED Talks and received the UK Business Speaker of the Year 2011 runner up award. He has spoken at over 80 international conferences and at institutions like Harvard University Yale University, the London School of Economics and executive networks. He has written three books: the first on personal branding, the second on how perception and beliefs affect important business decisions and the third on how to find the best mentors and keep them is due mid-2014. !Find more on www.about.me/noamkos

Pascal Finette Pascal is Director, and Office of the Chair at Mozilla, where he works on building and growing the Mozilla movement. Prior to his current role at Mozilla he led Mozilla Labs and created Mozilla's accelerator program WebFWD. He is a TEDx speaker and frequently talks about Open Innovation and the power of networks when combined with technology. He mentors entrepreneurs at The Unreasonable Institute, Unreasonable at Sea, TechStars, Seedcamp, Astia and many other places. In addition, he also founded the non-profit organization Mentor for Good to help global impact entrepreneurs change the world for the better, is the creator of the GyShiDo (Get Your S#%& Done) movement and publishes the opinionated TheHeretic.me newsletter. Pascal was described as "a social change maker to watch" by Craig Newmark (Craigslist), and voted the most important internet personalities in 2012 by the leading German business publication WirtschaftsWoche.

Penny Low Penny Low is the founder of the award-winning global movement – the Social Innovation Park (SIP), which advocates a more inclusive, sustainable, and better world, through collaborative innovation and partnership with the public, private, and people sectors. SIP has been consulted on many TV series including 'The Changemakers', 'Cradle of Life' and 'Social Inc'.



A veteran Singapore Member of Parliament who helped build the first eco-town in the tropics, Penny sits on many national committees covering the ministries of finance, trade and industry, education, information, arts and youth. She also covered >70 countries and published various articles and an award-winning book: ‘Practising Sustainability”, and is frequently interviewed and speaks at significant global platforms including Davos WEF and Skoll World Forum. Penny serves as a Global Advisor to many social innovation hubs, including The Dubai Hub, U.S.-based Larta Institute, Operation Hope, and the Board of Directors of the Commonwealth Business Council, Yale World Fellows Advisory Board. She is also the recipient of many global awards, including being founding member of the prestigious World Economic Forum’s New Asian Leaders and the Forum of Young Global Leaders, a Founding Curator of the Global Shapers Community, Aspen Ideas Festival Scholar and Yale World Fellow & Scholar.

Rob Hanna Rob Hanna is founder of Social Wealth Partners where he guides public and corporate leaders, teams, organizations and communities to scale the social impacts they value most, and President of Social Wealth Investment Management, from which he invests in and mentors high-performing, social impact entrepreneurs. Rob also serves as Director of Social Impacts for HOPE Campaign (a charitable network of international artists and celebrities supporting global causes) and was Chief Architect and Director of Operations for the world’s largest social innovation competition and online platform for university students, the Dell Social Innovation Challenge. Rob’s interdisciplinary achievements include earning three separate U.S. governors’ awards for innovating successful statewide, public private partnerships, earning the Austin mayor’s award for his city commissioner service, and serving as the youngest corporate President of wealth investment management companies for Dominick & Dominick Inc., the oldest Wall Street merchant bank and brokerage. !



Simon Bucknall Simon is the twice winner of the Toastmasters UK & Ireland Championship of Public Speaking and 2008 winner of the JCI Europe Public Speaking Championship. He is also the Immediate Past President (2012) of JCI London, part of a worldwide federation of more than 175,000 young leaders and entrepreneurs. He is a Fellow of the UK Professional Speaking Association and the Royal Society of the Arts. A full-time professional speaker, coach and masterclass facilitator, Simon specializes in helping professionals, leaders and opinion-formers to connect, influence and inspire through the spoken word.

Soon Loo Soon Loo is a successful business strategist with over 14 years of experience in technology, insurance, and real estate. Soon is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Elevation group, a private strategy and advisory firm with a focus on Asia. He also sits on the Board of Directors of IPIT, a publicly listed business trust. Most recently, he was a Regional Vice President of the AXA Group in Japan & the Asian-Pacific. Soon was honored in 2013 with the JCI “Top Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World” award.

Tony Tjan Anthony Tjan is CEO, Managing Partner and Founder of the venture capital firm Cue Ball, vice chairman of the advisory firm Parthenon, and co-author of the New York Times bestseller Heart, Smarts, Guts, and Luck.


http://hsgl.com/


Yoseph Ayele Yoseph is passionate about finding scalable models to meet humans' food, energy, and space needs while respecting the planet we live on. He is currently building bridges for entrepreneurs, investors, and talented people to New Zealand and develop innovative solutions to help humanity thrive. He does this through KiwiConnect. He has also been doing extensive research on entrepreneurial ecosystems and what makes them thrive. Previously, Yoseph helped build teams to grow Inflection, a technology startup based in San Francisco Bay Area. He has worked at Ashoka and other social enterprises in the education, agriculture, and humanitarian relief sectors. Yoseph graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Social Studies, where he served as President of the Leadership Institute at Harvard College (LIHC). He also did a research fellowship at the University of Cambridge.

Zdenek Fous Zdenek Fred is a serial entrepreneur seeking to build companies around the principles of freedom, passion and purpose. Currently, he is the Country Managed at LITS Global, a social business that enables high potentials from the corporate world to have a sustainable social impact in an emerging country without compromising their corporate careers. He holds a degree from the Stockholm School of Economics and the University of Economics in Prague, is CEMS and AIESEC alumnus and a Sandbox Ambassador. !


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6. About the Authors

!!!!!!


Noam Kostucki "My first real teacher was my judo coach. The rest of my life has been paved with extraordinary teachers.

Everything I’ve achieved, I’ve done it thanks to someone else. People who opened doors for me, or people

encouraged me to do what I wanted. It may have been someone who has given me great advice, or someone

who inspired me. Nothing I’ve achieved, I’ve achieved alone. I’ve decided to write this book because I wanted to

both thanks the people who’ve helped me reach this point, and to help others the way I’ve been helped."

Noam Kostucki is a professional speaker, coach and consultant on communication, strategy and innovation. He believes that everything can be turned into an art form, whether be public speaking, building a brand or running a business. Over the last decade, he has engaged with over 20,000 people in 12 countries. He worked with multinational clients like HP and Tata Consultancy Services. He has made over 30 media appearances, gave two TED Talks and received the UK Business Speaker of the Year 2011 runner up award. He has spoken at over 80 international conferences and at prestigious institutions like Harvard University, Yale University, the London School of Economics and executive networks. He has written three books: !1. You are Your Brand! Everything you know about banding but never thought applied to you 2. Compendium - How perception and beliefs affect important business decisions 3. Seek to Keep - How to find the best mentors and keep them Find more on www.about.me/noamkos


https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2gRaHyHJjrg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MCS4Re0s37s

http://www.spreaker.com/user/noamkos/harvard-conference

http://www.about.me/noamkos


Lujie Chen "I feel that I am very fortunate that so many mentors who have entered my life, and spent their time and effort

to nurture and guide me selflessly. When I look at my peers, many of them do not have mentors like I do, and

even if they have, many do not seem to be able to keep their mentors for more than 6 months. I want to help

youths who are driven and motivated to do the work that matters and to experience the, benefits from the

wisdom of mentors. If they can stand on the shoulders of giants, they will achieve more and make a greater

impact in the world. I hope that this book will add value to you, and help you gain the resources to do the work

that matters, the courage to dream a bit bigger and the faith to achieve things beyond your imagination!"

Lujie is the co-founder of the Young Leaders Circle and Gift for Reading, two social initiatives that develop and empower young people to make positive impact in the world around them. Inspired by how capital can be used efficiently to scale social impact, Lujie also worked at Impact Investment Exchange Asia (asiaiix.com)/ Shujog (shujog.org) as part of the Business Development team to be at the forefront of the nascent impact investing industry in Asia. Lujie is a Sandboxer, part of the foremost global community of extraordinary young innovators under 30 (www.sandbox-network.com), and a Kairos Global Fellow (www.kairossociety.org/). He is also one of the winners of Intuit 100Up Business Plan competition and is featured on The NACUE 1000. In addition to co-authoring this book, he is co-founding Kairos Society ASEAN while completing his Master's at Stanford University. Find more on www.about.me/lujie.chen


http://www.about.me/lujie.chen

Mirror or lighthouse - A quick guide to become the best mentor you can be

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