Why Mentors are Essential to Success?
I’ve been thinking and reflecting on the importance of mentors lately, both for myself, and for members of our team.
In the past I considered myself “self-taught”, aspiring after people such as John Carmack who mostly considered himself “self-taught”. I even prided at having “self-taught” myself programming, and how to do research, and had results better than most of my peers.
However, this all changed dramatically, especially in the past few years, as I’ve stumbled upon difficulty after difficulty while doing my startup companies.
As part of my desperate effort to seek out solutions and ways to get out of my troubles, I came upon many great thinkers and doers. Being able to learn from Benjamin Hardy’s AMP, Darren Hardy’s productivity and entrepreneurship, or Jim Kwik’s memory and learning, have been very helpful.
However, why learning from experienced people, and more importantly, getting direct feedback periodically from mentors and peers, is essential, I came out with a perspective based on the 80/20 rule.
The 80/20 rule essentials states that 80% of all outcome comes from 20% of causes/efforts. In some cases it’s even more extreme, such as 90/10, or even 95/5.
What this means is that out of the many things you do during a day, the many activities / potential tasks and decisions, there are in fact, actually only “a very few” key activities that will produce most results, or in other words, are responsible for your success, regardless of your fields.
Now the question is: what are those 20%, 10%, or even 5% of activities that are most important? And how can we discern them?
That’s where experiences and mentors come in.
A good mentor, having “been there, done that” can tell you exactly what are the “key” elements, ingredients, factors, or steps, that will lead to a particular desirable, or undesirable result, so you can better pursue or avoid them.
With a good guide, that’s equated of having the foundation of many years of experiences on your back to carry you forward. To stand on the shoulders or giants, that’s essentially what having a mentor will do for you.
Actually, only years later did I learn, even John Carmack, had Michael Abrash as his mentor/friend, on his way towards becoming a “3D graphics guru.”
So it’s becoming more and more clear to me, seeking out good mentors and acting on their advice, actually is now perhaps the most essential 5% of all activities, on one’s journey towards success.
