Find a MENTOR!

"One good MENTOR can be More Informative than a College Education and More Valuable than a Decade's Income"

-Sean Stephenson

I have read over and over again about the importance of having a mentor in my climb to success.  There is so much value in having someone who has been through the tough times, learned from their mistakes, and can give me experienced insight.  Having access to someone like this will not only sling shot the time frame of success forward, but will prevent me from making mistakes and help me avoid hurdles that they already have leaped.  

I recognize the importance of a Mentor, but where in the world do you find one?

I don't know anyone personally that has achieved the kind of success that I want to achieve, so does that mean there is no one qualified to be my mentor?

After some research and study, this is how I have decided to approach this dilemma!


Look for Wisdom: 

• I initially thought I needed to find someone oober rich in order to become oober rich, but I have learned that in choosing a mentor that I didn't need to find a person who has done, seen, and knows it all, I just need someone who has more wisdom than me in the area I want to achieve in!  It doesn't matter if they are 15 or 50 years old, as long as they have experience and wisdom that they can share with me.  Typically with age comes wisdom, but that's not a principle carved into stone.  I've known some pretty dopey old dudes!  In my case, I want to become more business savvy in the Physical Therapy world.  I asked my big boss man, Jay, to mentor me.  He doesn't run a corporate business and doesn't possess millions of dollars (that I know of), but he has been successful in private practice ownership for 30+ years!  He has a lot of Wisdom and Experience and is an excellent resource for me as I explore and learn that avenue.  

Choose multiple Mentors: 

• As I mentioned previously I have asked Jay to be my mentor in the Physical Therapy business world, but does that mean my business mentor is also going to have wisdom and experience in raising children, growing spiritually, or creating an online business?  As awesome as Jay is, there are likely going to be roads that I want to travel that he hasn't.  So I have tried to find multiple mentors.  For example in my spiritual life I have chosen my dad as a mentor, and for exercise and nutrition I chose my friend John, who is a year younger than me.  

Mentors, in all their forms: 

• Finding someone to mentor you for every avenue of self, financial, and business growth would be, well, insanely time consuming.  This is where reading books and watching videos of professionals and leaders in their respective fields can act as a mentor.  It's obviously not as personal, but books from men like Dave Ramsey, Napolean Hill, Jim Collins, Malcom Gladwell, Steven R. Covey, and many others is wisdom and experience from some of the greatest minds in the world!  I think that definitely works as a mentor!  I have joined Life Leadership, an organization from the brilliant minds of Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward, that has an unending source of knowledge in almost every avenue of life presented by some of the top leaders and experts in the world.  That has been my primary source of knowledge, and it also plugged me into connection with other like minded individuals.  If you are ever interested in learning more about Life Leadership shoot me an email at vshurtliff@hotmail.com.  Take a peak at their website at www.lifeleadership.com.  The other source of great knowledge that I frequently visit is TED TALKS at www.ted.com.  TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas in the form of short 10-20min talks that cover almost all topics--from science to business to global issues--and is powerful in changing ideas and attitudes!

Score.org

• My friend Ronny just introduced me to this website.  It is a mentor website where you can choose the area you need guidance.  They connect you with mentors that you can contact for education and mentor-ship.  This is a free or very low cost program.  I haven't done it personally but from what I have seen on the website and talking to Ronny, who is using it, it sounds like a pretty good resource.   I'm sure there are multiple programs like this, but this is the only one I'm familiar with and it appears to be pretty effective.  Check it out:  https://www.score.org/