How is a Mentor a Self-Investment

Mentors Teach and Encourage Their Mentees

How is a Mentor a Self-Investment?

​As an individual, getting a mentor should be one of the top priorities for investing in yourself and your future. Typically, mentors are experts in their areas of expertise. Still, they can be anyone with more life experience who can guide you and offer knowledge in many different areas of your personal and professional life. In addition, they focus on building and encouraging your growth now and in the future.

​Mentorship can help you think about and overcome challenges. Your mentor can help you stay on track and achieve your goals. They steer you to the resources you need to educate yourself and increase your confidence.

​-A Source of Knowledge

Wisdom at Your Disposal

​The information and wisdom that mentors share helps you understand important concepts, ideas, and the past and future outlooks of your life and field of study. In addition, they encourage you to keep investing in the most important person, yourself. Finally, they help you hold yourself accountable and stay on track with your life goals.

Someone to Talk To

​Through speaking with your mentor and communicating about your area of specialty, you become better at communicating with others in your field. You can brainstorm, run ideas by them, and learn where resources are.
​Mentors teach you important terminology and expected behaviors. Having been in the field already, they have experiences to share with you. Relevant, important experiences from their lives you can learn from. From there, you can emulate their successes and avoid the mistakes they have made.

​-Enhanced Communication Skills

Aside from gaining relevant experience and wisdom, when you find a good mentor who is knowledgeable and more experienced, your communication skills are improved, and you can explain your ideas better. Over time, you become more confident and successful when relaying your ideas to other people.
​A successful mentor knows how to navigate your chosen field and teaches the best networking skills and platforms or venues. Finding your niche and best platforms through meeting other people leads to growth, and sharing ideas requires strong communication skills. A mentor teaches these skills through observation of your techniques and by example.

​-You Learn from Your Mentor's Mistakes

Mistakes are Important Learning Tools

​Besides inspiring you, your mentor has surely made plenty of mistakes in their personal and professional lives that you can learn from. The things you learn from their past failures are perhaps the most valuable lessons for you to learn.
The key is that your mentor has already taken a similar life path as you have chosen. Knowing how something was unsuccessful or which projects failed, you can avoid the traps your mentor faced as they were learning and growing into the wonderful person you know. By sharing their struggles they give you the tools to excel.
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​-Networking and Opportunities

M​entors are likely already well-connected and highly established in their respective fields; they know the important people and agencies to network with and places that are effective for networking. As a result, they can guide you towards networking opportunities and people to talk to that you wouldn't have been without them. 
Whether through letters and messages of recommendation or by reaching out to the network that they have, mentors open doors for you. With their connections, letters, or words of recommendation, or just someone knowing who your mentor is, it opens up a whole new set of possibilities that have the power to enhance your professional and personal growth.

​-Personal and Professional Development

​Professional advancement opportunities go hand in hand with networking and the acquisition of enhanced information. As your knowledge and skills increase from working with your mentor, you will be better able to apply for and advocate for greater opportunities for yourself.

As a result of your mentor's education or professional network, you become more productive and more likely to land a more successful job.

Mentoring Doesn't Have to Be in Person

Mentorship is a Self-Investment for Mentors, Too

​The mentee isn't the only person investing in themselves.

​Being a mentor is a self-investment, too. Mentoring is a means to give back or pay it forward.  The experiences you have had deserve to be remembered and passed to the next generation. And they deserve to hear what you have to say.

​You've worked hard to get to the advanced stage you're at. The experiences you have had contributed greatly to who you are personally and professionally.

​The Self-Investment of a Mentor

​As a mentor you have the opportunity to grow and learn from your mentee just as much as they do from you:

•  new knowledge and ideas

•  mentors also experience professional development as well as the people they mentor

•  develop skills in interpersonal communication, just as your mentee does

•  stimulation and challenge of mental and verbal collaboration

•  coaching and leadership skills are improved

•  new perspective is gained through your mentee and what they have experienced

All of these things are infinitely valuable. They encourage self-reflection and learning from your own examples. Which is the biggest self-investment there is.

​Make Change for the Future

​Experiencing the joy of collaborative exchange and gaining new insights and ideas from your mentee are rewards in themselves. You learn, implement ideas, and come up with new solutions through the mentee/mentor relationship.

​Being a mentor is a priceless self-investment.

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​References:

​Conkle, B. (2021, January 18). Mentoring: Benefits of a mentor. Hustle Education with Brooks Conkle. https://www.brooksconkle.com/benefits-of-a-mentor
University of the People. (2020, May 24). Importance of mentors: Reasons to be one or get one. University of the People. https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/importance-of-mentors