modern_monk,
Thanks for the reply, but perhaps I need to clarify what I meant by 'mentor'. I'm not looking for a personal development coach, and I'm certainly not looking for someone to coddle me and live my life for me.
Suppose, for example, I wanted to get into real estate investing. A possible mentor in this case (by my definition) would be someone who has been a private investor for a number of years, has a good working knowledge of the industry and the people working within it, and who has achieved the kind of results I was looking at. Now, far from holding my hand, I would look to this person to be able to:
- Answer any specific questions I have about the field (or point me to resources that could)
- Be a sounding board for my ideas, and
- Encourage me to pursue my path (both actively and through example)
My concept of a mentor is someone with a
specific experience that I would like to tap into. Not someone to coach my whole life, but just act as a beacon for a particular goal I've set myself.
Now what I was hoping to do by starting this thread was get together some ideas and discussion on attracting/seeking mentors for the various goals we may have set ourselves, and the issues of being a mentor or a mentee.
I hope that makes things a bit clearer. Does anyone here even have a mentor-mentee relationship with another person? How did your relationship with them start? Have you found it useful and fulfilling?