SolveYourProblem Article Series: Networking
How To Successfully Network Yourself

Seeking a Mentor For Networking Yourself

For people who’ve been working in their business for a fair amount of time, a mentor might be an absolute no-no conceptually. However, if you take a second look, looking deeper into what a mentor can provide in the end, the utility and possibilities from having a mentor might just be endless. Although you might not be in need of what a mentor most typically provides, which is to say basic advice about the field and a start-up plan, someone who’s a mentor in the field must have a lot of contacts in the field. If you work with them on the basis of apprentice, it is highly likely that you will establish contact with those people. Especially if you’ve already been in the field for a while, your skills will be that much more impressive from the start and your mentor will be that much more likely to say good things about you to his colleagues and to his other work connections.

So while the idea of getting a mentor might not be an attractive one from the start, the possibilities that it could bring are definitely worth the slight blow to your pride from working as an apprentice. If you are genuinely interested in furthering your career, make your pride take the back seat for a few years; if you’re genuinely wanting to become the best of the best, you have to be realistic about what it is that’s going to get you there. The things that can help you achieve the absolute top level, in any field, are usually all around you, not deep inside you. Networking and collaboration are on the top of the list when it comes to making your way in the professional world, but if you’re networking with the wrong people because you can’t fight your way into the top circle, you need a new plan of attack.

Most experienced professionals are very flattered when they are approached in the interest of becoming a mentor. Anyone who is approached as a potential mentor will know that they have made it to ‘expert status’ in their field if people are looking for their advice. Of course, in some cases, professionals are too busy or they think they are too important to be bothered with mentoring. This is not a problem though because this type of professional tends to burn more bridges than he builds. The type of professional who can get you into prime networking circles is the kind of professional who is also ready, willing and able to take on a mentor-apprentice relationship with you. This type of professional is still in the peak of their professional career and still needing to stay at the top. Professionals who are not interested in networking and mentoring have most likely already reached their peak and are now sliding into home on the momentum gained earlier on in their career.

Seek a mentor in a respectful way, not taking up too much of their time (this will also prove to be minimal time investment for you), always being positive, and most importantly, always being appreciative of anything that the mentor shares with you. Even if you already know in your head that this new tidbit of information is one that you are not going to use, don’t say that, just thank them for taking the time to share this idea with you. Remember that what you’re most interested in is getting into a circle, from where you can continue to grow; you don’t want your mentor to be a bridge between the inner circle and yourself, you want your mentor to bring you into the circle, and then you have to use your own two feet to stay within the circle, networking with everyone, not just your initial contact.

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SolveYourProblem.com : 2007

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