Fola Daniel Adelesi: The Importance of Mentorship For Career Acceleration

There are many people who, with their skills and talent, we are sure they will go far in life. I have seen people with certain unique talents that I begin to wonder if we were all made by the same God. Sadly, when you look at some of these people with these skills, you notice that they’re either going at a slow pace in life or aren’t moving at all. Many people assume, just as I did when I was much younger, that money will naturally follow talent. As you progress in life, you may be shocked to realise that money does not always follow talent or skills.

The key ingredient to making the most out of your talent – and speedily enough – is to have a mentor. This does not mean you wouldn’t make it in life without a mentor, after all, there are those who are also going fast because of the skills they have. Still, everyone needs a mentor to be able to gain speed with what you’re doing.

Money will only follow the talent that has been refined, well packaged, and is being properly marketed. With a mentor, you will also realize that it is not everyone you should be marketing your skills or talents to. You may get help with identifying a niche-based market that you can push your skills to and your results will begin to multiply.

When you do not have a mentor, there are too many things you will have to figure out on your own, and others, you many never be able to figure out. The benefit of a mentor is that the he/she has experiences that can be shared with you. The knowledge that a mentor will share with you in a few minutes has been acquired through years of struggles and experiences garnered as they progressed. What has happened is that you gained years of experience by just listening for a few minutes and instead of making the same mistake, you’re able to avoid it.

The moment you start avoiding the same mistakes people in the past have made, you’re able to move faster in life. I remember sitting with one of my coaches, the late Richie Dayo Johnson, and he said to me that life is fifteen percent skill and eighty-five percent marketing. I didn’t understand this concept before. I was in the category of those who used to think that skill was all that was needed. I thought people would focus on my skill much more than appearance and marketing efforts. It took a few experiences and the statement from my mentor to jolt me out of that illusion. Life does not automatically reward you for your skill. It was when my mentor mentioned this that I realized some people I know were simply doing better than me because of marketing efforts. They weren’t exceptionally brilliant and it wasn’t that they could do the job better but in addition to the little skill they had, there was a lot of marketing.

One other way mentors give you speed is by connecting you to a network of already-established people who are willing to offer you jobs, pay you for your skills, refer you to other people and just generally make things easier for you. I recall sharing some of my thoughts and goals with my mentor and he would say that he knows just the right person I should be talking to. He would share their contacts and ask me to reach out to them. Those introductions and networks have been very helpful and I dare say have given me great leverage in life.

I don’t know what you’re trying to do or achieve in life but I am certain that with the right mentor in your industry or a general mentor in life, you will be able to do it faster. You will be able to reduce the number of mistakes you’re going to make in life and that will save you a lot of time, stress, and money.

Get a mentor, learn and accelerate your career and other aspects of your life.

 

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