Vijay Anand | The Startup Guy.

Dont Confuse a Mentor with a Coach

// Uncategorized

Its rare, but now and then you do find someone who is equally passionate about that idea thats stuck in your head. You know you often struggle to comprehend, let alone verbalize and explain what you are going after, but these rare mentors do get you. Really they do. They’d pitch in when you are ideating, would love to throw in their two cents to make your idea/product better, and more than anything, they’ll spend every network and contact that they got to help you succeed.

And thats where you usually make the mistake. You take them for a friend, or even worse as a coach.

Do you know the difference between a mentor and a coach? A coach usually brings out the best in you, helps find answers within yourself and more often than not is that silent reinforcer to help you believe in yourself. If you are short on active imagination, remember every movie that you know of where the “Coach” is giving that inspirational talk before a big game as to why they can do it.

A mentor doesnt do that.

A Mentor is usually never there to guide you when you are down with your personal issues. Thats exactly where a mentor is better than a coach, because that mentor of yours in most cases is also someone who has walked the path you are walking, and knows that to become strong, you MUST fight your demons yourself. That’s the only way you’ll succeed, and can face a client, customer or worse yet, an Investor. And the mentor is not going to be there to get you on your high horse everytime you enter a board meeting saying “You can make it”.

Mentors at best are like eagles, who will sit with you, make elaborate plans, know your full potential and then once your wings are out and ready to fly, will break the nest and throw you off the cliff. if you die, you die trying, but if you would just flutter your wings, you’ll be what it takes to be.

So here’s a lesson. If you have a mentor, and I presume you had your reasons for picking that person to mentor/advise you? Well, remember those reasons over and over again. You’ll love him at first, and then will hate him and call him names. But the one that truly cares, will push you to better heights and make you the entrepreneur that the world is ready for. And the only way you’ll notice this type is when you see the quality that resonates with you. Sheer passion, and there is never a moment of indifference.

Dont make the mistake of wanting a Coach, where you actually need a mentor.