A Successful Mentor - L2P3 @Toastmasters International Club by Ganesh Raja

A SUCCESSFUL MENTOR

A sculptor sees the hidden beauty inside a raw stone and using his hammer and chisel carves a beautiful statue out of it. Same way, a mentor is someone who sees the latent talent and ability within a mentee and helps it bloom.

A mentor with his experience and knowledge base gains insight and wisdom. A mentor and the protégé develop a symbiotic commitment and a successful relationship towards achieving greater goals.

Anyone in audience heard of Dan Lok?
Born in Hong Kong he moved with his mother to Canada at the age of 14, when his Dad became bankrupt and stayed back at Hong Kong. Dan at age of 16 started supporting his mother bagging grocery, he entered college but dropped out.

Sifu Dan Lok became a millionaire at age 27 and a multi-millionaire at age 30. Today, Dan is a business magnate, an international bestselling author and a global educator.

He was obsessed with marketing and discovered marketing expert Alan Jacques. Dan studied his sales letters and attended his seminars, where he met Jacques in person. When Dan asked to be his mentee, Jacques declined.

Dan wasn’t discouraged. In his words, “I visited his office every day for about a month. I did everything possible to demonstrate my willingness to help — including picking up trash around the office — until he finally hired me.”

The 21-year-old spent weeks crafting his first sales letter, only for Jacques to tell him it was terrible. Dan rewrote it seven times before Jacques was satisfied.

He says that his mentor taught him everything from the concept of marketing and branding to copywriting. It was the solid support and guidance of his mentor that gave him the confidence that would underwrite his success. Dan says the 12-month mentorship from Jacques was his first “million-dollar year.”

Year 2018, month of Dec, due to organizational changes, my manager shifted me to a new product to be handled from the beginning of 2019.

Personally, I didn’t like that, because I had invested 4 years on the existing product
and had become an expert in that.

Something within me propelled me to accept the new Challenge.

Then, one of my friends Anki in office told me, ‘Raja, I believe in you. You’ll fit perfectly in the new team. Take it up.”

2019 February I was promoted as the Lead Engineer.

My Friend patted my back and told me, ‘Now’s the right time to prove yourself on the new Role.’

At that moment, I hadn’t accepted him as a Mentor. After some months, he became a Manager for our product and continued his mentoring.

He supports and urges me, to take personal responsibility for working towards accomplishment of broader goals over a sustained period of time.

Conclusion:

Every great achiever is inspired by a Great Mentor.

Follow the guidance of your mentors and march ahead like Dan Lok did following the footsteps of Alan Jacques.
I urge you all toastmasters to also exploit the mentor- mentee system seriously to achieve your goals.

The world is expanding, expand your horizon, make use of social media like LinkedIn & YouTube and follow great leaders and great masters. They are the Virtual mentors, who share their knowledge and experience via the internet.

The goal is to empower a protégé - to unlock his/her hidden potential - to reach set goals -and leave behind footprints for others to follow.

I’ve started my forward march.

Are you???

Thank U