“Colleagues are a wonderful thing – but mentors, that’s where the real work gets done.” — Junot Diaz
I have done my fair share of school, including undergraduate school at University College of London in London, England, and special course and executive classes at Columbia University in New York, and at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I appreciate my education for sure, but while that is all said and done, I believe the kind of education that has moved me the most is the push and insights I have been given from Mentors.
Yes, Lord knows I have had my fair share of experience also. You know, the School of Hard Knocks. There is no teacher like that of real life experience and certainly nothing that can teach you things like failures.
However, although I have somewhat learned to appreciate failures, I am like most other human individuals that if indeed I could avoid failures, well, then for sure I would like to do so.
This is where mentors can be of incredible value.
With the right mentors, not only do you get some of the knowledge and experience that they have gathered over the course of their efforts and years, but you may just also avoid a lot of the mistakes that you would be inclined to make without a mentor by your side.
A good mentor has already been there and done that. A good mentor more than likely has paid the price and paid with failures and the costs that come along with those.
A good mentor can help guide you and direct you around such pitfalls, so that you save time and money, and indeed possibly a lot of pain.
If I have avoided great pitfalls or reached a goal sooner and in more smooth manner in some instances, it has been because of mentors.
If I reached further and higher it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants.
Yet, I am saddened to see just how few people I meet ever have embraced a mentor or even know what a mentor is.
As you may know, I have personally consulted a lot of companies all over the United States and Canada. Most of the companies that I consulted were run by very smart people. They were great at their skills, but most had many deficiencies in the skills and expertise of running a business.
Often they would have started out back in their day and offered their skills as e.g. a plumber. Then soon enough grown a business from great reputation and eventually kept such growth going.
But soon enough they would find themselves with a sizeable business, much busier than ever before, lots of customers, several employees, a lot of assets in form of vans etc., working longer hours than ever before, but all their profits would have turned to losses, and now they were facing bankruptcies or having to take up even further debt to stay alive, if indeed they could even drum up someone to finance them.
While all of them, as I mentioned, were very skilled at their craft, they all lacked knowledge and insights into the skills of runing a business, or as I like to call it: The business of buisness.
That is where I came in. Although I would make no claims of being highly skilled or knowledgeable of plumbing, or HVAC, or in fencing contractor business, or pharmacy, or concrete services or a myriad of other types of businesses, I am highly skilled in the area of the Business of Business. And therefore I could help each and everyone of them.
I would enter their business and very quickly indentify some of the biggest deficiencies, challenges and inefficiences, and then drawing on my vast experience and knowledge in business, be able to put in place the remedies that would righten the ship so to speak.
Within weeks, their businesses would begin to turn around and although I would come at a very high price to be paid up in full every week, the efforst that were put in place into their businesses would make a higher return than the cost of me. In other words the investment was sound and the cash flow was tamed to be able to bear me while helping the businesses.
During all my stays with a company, I would ensure that I instructed the business owner and his or her team, so that they essentially would learn How to Fish, instead of me just Catching Fish for them.
Far too many people, carry on their lives and busineesses without mentors. They actually end up overpaying both in cash, lost profits, sleepless nights, stress and so much more than the cost would have been to find a great mentor to aid them along.
Sometimes i believe it is a terrible false pride that hold some people back. It is like they say to themselves: “I don’t need a mentor. I can fix this myself”.
It is like the men, who will absolutely NOT ask for directions when driving a vehicle going somewhere (yes, I am guilty of this too at times, cause I’m a guy too). But how foolish is that?
Well, the clients that I ended up serving and helping were smart enough to accept the help. They were smart enough to understand that while they were great at their skills, they could use some really good help in learning how to run their businesses.
Myself, I have many mentors. Every time I run into a new area that I wish to become better in, I seek out a mentor or mentors. The difference is night and day. Because of my mentors and the lessons I have gained from working with them, I have come further and faster than I would have otherwise. Because of mentors, I have been able to bring so much value and real insights to business owners in industries that I would have had no prior insights to before showing up at their doorsteps.
In other words, I highly recommend mentors and I highly recommend that you find yourself a mentor.
Pitzner Business Solutions, of course is a mentor. Here we mentor in mostly the art of Business, and along with that Mindset. Mindset, because that is of such incredible importance for you to reach any success in business or indeed in life (regardless of area).
With a partner in a separate company we offer mentorship in the form of consultancy services. If you wish to hire one of our consultants, we will love to help you. They are all exceptionally great and experienced. However, a plugin mentor such as a consultant will run you quickly to about $18,000-$20,000 a week plus expenses.
Now, do not get me wrong. This is often more than worth it and often turning in return of investment that far exceeds what many of our clients have experienced ever before. But it can certainly be a deterrence. So what to do.
Well, today, with the advent of the internet, we are all very lucky. For today, you can get a lot of mentorship at a fraction of the cost, simply because you share in the expense of such a mentor with a lot of others. For instance, I have made a program that teaches business owners about how to manage and stay on top of your cash flow. Cash is incredibly important to any business, and yet most people have no clue as to how to manage cash flow or even staying knowledgeably on top of their cash flow situation.
If I were to come and teach you in person the skills of the Cash Flow Program, it would probably take at least a week for the very smartest of people, but more likely 2 weeks to get to decent bare minimum confident levels of understanding of how to do it.
With the Cash Flow Program, you can study it at your own pace, and then come back for as many repeat instructions or refreshers as needed, but your investment in the program in terms of the price of admission is but a fraction of a week visit from me or a colleague of mine.
Many of the mentors I have had, provided me with most of their time and insights via online methods and platforms, just like that of the Pitzner Business Solutions platform. It made the price of admission much more bearable and it made it more possible for me an as well as convenient, than if I would have had to clear my calendar and fly somewhere to take in the training, or indeed have to fly in my mentor at my expense, paying all travel related expenses, flights, hotels, car rentals, per diem etc.
I would like you to consider, just how long you will go on your own, learning the hard way, with failures and losses, before you step up and embrace your mentor.
Don’t god too long, would be my recommendation. The price could be too high. Not just financially, but also with the likely repercussions that you may have to face on the home front with your spouse. The spouse tends not to like when money dries up or the business fails.
If you are on the fence on mentorship, please do not hesitate to reach out and discuss or ask any questions that may help you gain clarity for your next step. Simple shoot me an email to info@pitznerbusinesssolutions.com
If you would like to learn more about the Cash Flow Program I mentioned, please read further here.
Mikkel Pitzner
Pitzner Business Solutions
Mikkel Pitzner is the creator of Pitzner Business Solutions and many of the programs offers via the Pitzner Business Solutions platform and website.
His business acumen are vast indeed, and to catch a glimpse, just visit his Linkedin profile.
He is passionate about business and passionate about helping people, which he has found he can do with his mentorship, his consultantcy and his programs.
