Hello reader; as promised in my last post titled “Doing more than you can logically do”, I will, in the next two posts open you up to two of the various LEVERAGE SOLUTIONS™ I have identified. You can learn more from my audio product (M ADVANTAGE).

Leverage Solutions™ are solutions to problems, challenges, limitations that are premised on the Core Principle of Leverage.(you can read my post titled “Doing more than you can logically do to learn more”.

 The first Leverage Solution I want to talk about is the Leverage Solution that you can employ in breaking limitations and overcoming the challenges you face when you are starting or beginning a particular venture or project. That Leverage Solution is MENTORING. Now while mentoring is not a new concept, understanding mentoring from the perspective of Leverage will help you get the most out of it.

Mentoring is a leverage solution because when someone has a mentor, that person has the opportunity to Leverage on the mentor’s knowledge, skill, technical know-how, experiences, exposure and general capacity. Remember, Leverage is the ability for you to do more than you can logically do so as to achieve more than you can logically achieve. Leverage is the ability to use the little that you have, to achieve the much that you want and knowing how to successfully engage the concept of Mentoring gives you that ability.

A mentor is someone who has gone ahead of you in a particular in a particular path of business or job and is willing to help you on that path.

Mentoring is an answer to your yet to be discovered problem, if I empower two people with capital to start a business under the same conditions and one of them has a mentor while the other does not, the person with a mentor will already be years ahead of the other person who has no mentor in a lot of ramification. The mentor will not run your business for you or do your job for you, however when critical decisions have to be made, you will likely make correct decisions with a mentor in assistance. The truth is, all the mistakes you will ever make in that line of business or job is somewhere in the history of someone else, and if you are connected to that person you will not make those costly mistakes; this means you will not make the mistakes that he has made, you will not be vulnerable to the effect of trials and errors. This means you will be most likely right all of the time in making critical decisions.  A mentor gives you the ability to work with the knowledge you do not possess, with the experience you have not gathered. Simply put; it gives you the ability to do more than you can logically do. A mentoring relationship can reduce a five years journey in a one week journey.

With these uncountable benefits of a mentoring relationship, I will count it as folly, when people start something totally new without some sort of mentor. Learning about business is totally different from running a business, the experiences you will face in the real business world where it is “dog eat dog” is totally different from what you have learnt in an entrepreneurship school,  it is lack of wisdom in itself to embark on a journey you have never embarked on without asking any question. It is still a mystery to me how people can intentionally be vulnerable while making so much investment; honestly it’s crazy.

Trust me, I am a consultant and I have asked people facing challenges in their businesses certain questions like “didn’t you have this information before you started” and their answer is “no”; who and who did you consult before you embarked?, and the answer is nobody; who is your guide in this project and the answer is nobody. It’s shocking to know that they started business without consulting someone who has travelled that journey once.

Mike Tyson needed Cus’Damato, Mandela needed Walter Sisulu, Obama needed Emil Jones and Laurence H Tribe, Raji Fashola has Bola Tinunbu, Michael Jackson had Quincy Jones, and so who would you need as you step into that new seemingly overwhelming pursuit?

How do I identify or start a mentoring relationship. (Continue: Read Part 2)