Mentorship!
Over the course of the past few weeks, I've been serving as a mentor to first-time entrepreneurs. It's been an amazing experience that's teaching me more than I've returned. Mostly, it's helped solidify some of my hypotheses about startups, entrepreneurs and business development but it's also helped humble my thinking. Finally, first-time entrepreneurs are like babies: they soak up information like a sponge, they try to imitate those they look upto closely, they have no concept of right & wrong, they're still developing themselves physically & mentally, and they live without any preconceptions (hence why unsocialized startups fail).
Though it's unsurprising how most people (especially, new entrepreneurs) want to hear only good things about themselves and their startups. However, some mentors allow this mentality to overcome their work and begin to give "feel good" advice rather than deliver painful news. Yet, most people need to acknowledge that the point of a mentor is to tell you what you want to hear the least. They need to expose the truth and the realities of life to the entrepreneurs but be there when they need a shoulder. A mentor's main job is to ensure their entrepreneurs respond to the environment appropriately both emotionally and strategically.
They must push their entrepreneurs past their perceived limits to reach higher faster to become stronger. Their job is less about lecturing but to create a network that their students can rely on. Rather than act as a college professor, act as an extremely knowledge-specific friend. Close friends tell you what others are too afraid to say, but they say it with the intent to help:
"I push my students to the edge and right before they jump off, I pull them back"
- Dr. Cakir, South Brunswick High School (he taught the most advanced mathematics & physics courses at my high school)
However, they need to let their startups fail but help them understand why they did and how bounce back. I oppose hiding information to let your startups fail, but I'm advocating for disallowing yourself from taking your startup's responsibilities. This final point is tricky, but an apt analogy: think "slow parenting" rather than "helicopter parenting". In the latter case, you try to abstract any harm that can approach your children, which allows your children to grow up quickly; on the other hand, "slow parenting" advocates for your children to grow up at their own pace. You let your children face the world themselves and helping them as they hit road-bumps. "Slow parenting" focuses on creating a bond with your children that's deep and emotionally connected, whereas, "helicopter parents" focuses on material success. In either case, the parents want their children to live fullfilling lives, but the focus is completely different and in the latter case when children finally face adversity they fail miserably because they never had to deal with previous adversity.
