The Importance of Mentorship in Business | John F. Davenport | Business Website

John Davenport
2 min readSep 27, 2021

All the successful entrepreneurs have reached their current place after working hard, but maybe they would not have achieved as much without guidance. Global personalities like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk are billionaire business persons with different paths to the top, but a common thing about them is that they had mentors.

The achievers create time to mentor others. Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Apple founder was his mentor when Jobs passed on. Zuckerberg and many other people realized the importance of mentorship in business, and it helped them get ahead of the crowd.

Why It Matters To Have A Mentor

Many young entrepreneurs believe they can achieve everything alone but find out later that it was a mistake. The truth is that all answers do not lie with one person. Some situations make entrepreneurs question their capacity and hesitate. Help by another person helps to get from the predicament.

Entrepreneurs who want to learn and progress need to recruit great mentors. The strategy might appear simple, but it provides an opportunity to access insider knowledge and power. Mentorship increases the odds of success more than other factors.

Endeavor conducted a study about the importance of mentorship in business on various organizations, including tech companies. The researcher found out that entrepreneurs leading startups had a solid connection to founders of other flourishing companies.

An example is Chad Dickerson of Etsy, who mentors other successful entrepreneurs like Caterina Fake from Flickr and Brian O’Kelley of AppNexus. The result of mentorship is powerful since the study found out that 33% of founders with mentors were top performers.

Mentees should not expect their mentors to clear all obstacles and mistakes, but they give effective advice. Good mentors are honest, and the mentees benefit if they implement the advice.

Finding A Mentor

It is natural to want the best, but it is unrealistic to restrict potential mentors to the top industry players. They cannot create time for everyone. The best starting point is dealing with successful local entrepreneurs. The best approach is to start by building a relationship while demonstrating respect by not being too demanding. Mentees can get more than one mentor, especially for those who require guidance in different segments.

Entrepreneurs willing to spend money can find programs and accelerators that offer paid mentorship, such as GrowthMentor. There is a guarantee to receive professional mentorship that generates tangible results.

The importance of mentorship in business is that it helps to grow ideas into opportunities.

Originally published at https://johnfdavenport.org on September 27, 2021.

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John Davenport

John F. Davenport is an insurance broker and attorney. Davenport owns Davenport and Associates. Follow him at johnfdavenport.net for more info!