Is a leader born or made? When one looks at a winner, is it because they are talented or worked hard? What separates conventional mentorship to that of great mentorship? How is it that a skilled coach can take a losing team and by the time they are through with it, that team can be winning on every sphere?
Whatever your answers may be to these questions, the one thing that will always remain true is that there is power in great mentorship.
Radical mentorship
With a skilled mentor by your side, you can unearth a new and improved version within you that you never even knew existed. Mentorship is not a one-man band, but something that can be collectively pursued to better the environment, family, community, media and organisations. Internal and external stakeholders from all spheres of life can and should all be responsible for mentoring.
Mentorship empowers with what it has (and doesn’t)
A great mentor gives everything; this includes what they have as well as what they don’t have, but they see it in you. For example, a swimming coach who has personally not won any big national awards, can train/empower their students to be Olympic gold medallists. Some of the greatest soccer coaches were not the best players, but groomed the greatest players and teams the world has ever seen.
Mentorship specialises in breaking barriers
Look at a body builder. In order to get there, it took hours, weeks, months and often many years at the gym, pushing the body, and getting back up even after pain and fatigue. A great mentor knows how to beat your mind black and blue in a safe manner. They know how to chisel out muscles without tearing you.
There must be an impartation… Some kind of investment
Gaining expertise is not an overnight phenomena, but one that incorporates the impartation of tools, skills, tricks, traits, resources and ideas. It takes time, sacrifice and an investment to sustain seeds until those same seeds break forth from the ground and blossom.
Gone are the days of looking out there for someone to instil entrepreneurial greatness within our children. You can mentor the youth in your community to go so much further than you’ve ever dared to think. Join the SA Teen Entrepreneur programme for parents to receive helpful tips, advice and resources today. You have a duty to play in the shaping of our children’s future.
