Ask anyone, how did you get to where you are today? Most of them will say an abundance of hard work, perseverance, and help from my community. While it does take all three to find success, nothing beats having a great mentor in your corner.
Every entrepreneur or innovator created their company and/or product with the help and guidance from their mentors. Mentors can be your peers sharing the same path, or seasoned veterans that forged the same path you are on. Mentors can even be outside observers that have been driven by your path. They are all equally important and should cultivate you as you grow in your professional career and even through your life’s journey.
What Is A Mentor
The Ion, Houston’s innovation hub, believes that mentors are the key to success. Everyone’s success, from an inexperienced computer science intern to the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, is driven by a meaningful mentorship. They help guide you, listen to your needs, and share their experiences and expertise. Mentors are for everyone and anyone and can be found through your family, friends, community organizations, employer, or social media. Depending on what you need, the source of a mentor will and should be different for each individual.
A mentor is someone who is a trusted source of information -- information about careers, relationships, business, or any other area of your life that could use guidance. When you think about your relationship with your mentor and the expertise they hold, there should be different mentors for different areas of your life.
How Mentorship Drives Innovation
Mentors drive innovation because they help innovators succeed, from the youngest child learning how to read to the seasoned entrepreneur breaking into a new market. Innovators need people on their side, helping them navigate the unknown. New experiences or ventures can leave you lacking knowledge or in the dark on the right path to take, but a trusty mentor can be there to guide you, lend a hand, and open the right doors.
Innovation starts with a new idea and taking a new or unfamiliar path to turn this idea into reality might be uncomfortable for some people. While innovation is an essential part of our economic development and ecosystem growth, it may be lonely for the innovators. This is where mentors come in -- mentors help validate your ideas, envision the possibilities, and recognize the shortcomings. Mentors can also create a safe space to talk about failures, which are a normal part of the innovation cycle and life. They can help you manage through failures and find the overarching lesson that will help you grow and learn.
How To Find The Right Mentor
To begin your search for mentors, you need to ask yourself why you need a mentor. Do you need advice on a specific topic or general guidance for navigating your career and life? Your search for mentors will stem from your answer to that question, and there is no right or wrong answer to this. As you gain experience, your needs will change. Some mentors will come and go depending on your journey, and some mentors will stay in your life for the long haul.
I like to think of finding the right mentor as finding the right job or life partner -- you have to get to know them and see if you have a spark. Once you take the first step and define your need for a mentor, begin looking at your network, social media, and events to connect with prospective mentor candidates. Ask the potential mentor to meet you for coffee to talk about their journey and get to know them. After spending a little bit of time with them, you can determine if they are the right mentor for you.
The Ion is an example of a source for people to meet potential mentors, as it connects entrepreneurs and startups with leaders from Houston's innovation ecosystem. The Ion hosts a variety of events, programs, and accelerators to create a community for people to connect with innovators within their network.
If you’re looking to become a mentor, and have time and expertise to educate and empower a growing number of diverse individuals within our technology and innovation-focused community, apply for The Ion’s mentor program today here.
