Monday, December 8, 2008

What Is A Mentor And Why Do You Need One??

The roots of the practice are lost in antiquity. The word itself was inspired by the character of Mentor in Homer's Odyssey. Though the actual Mentor in the story is a somewhat ineffective old man, the goddess Athena takes on his appearance in order to guide young Telemachus in his time of difficulty.

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In Greek mythology, Mentor (Greek: Μέντωρ / Méntōr)[1] was the son of Alcumus and, in his old age, a friend of Odysseus. When Odysseus left for the Trojan War he placed Mentor in charge of his son, Telemachus, and of his palace. When Athena visited Telemachus she took the disguise of Mentor to hide herself from the suitors of Telemachus' mother Penelope.[2] As Mentor, the goddess encourages Telemachus to stand up against the suitors and to go abroad in order to learn out about his father.

Today mentors provide their expertise to less experienced individuals in order to help them advance their careers, enhance their education, and build their networks. Many of the world's most successful people have benefited from having a mentor including:

Business people - Freddie Laker mentored Richard Branson

Politicians - Aristotle mentored Alexander the Great

Directors - Martin Scorsese mentored Oliver Stone at the New York University

Actors - Mel Gibson mentored Heath Ledger

Music - Johann Christian Bach mentored Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Athletes - Eddy Merckx (five-time Tour de France winner) mentored Lance Armstrong
(seven-time Tour de France winner).

Movies - Obi-wan Kenobi mentored Anakin Skywalker and his son Luke Skywalker

Movies - Mr. Miyagi mentored the Karate Kid (Danny LaRusso)


A Mentor in business will take an up-and-coming and groom him/her to be a leader. A
(protégé) is paired with a senior level leader (or leaders) for a series of career-
coaching interactions. A mentor is like a sounding board, they can give advice but the protégé is free to pick and choose what they do. The context does not have specific performance objectives.

Why Mentoring For Free??

Mentors have leadership experience and proven success records in Network Marketing and in life.

They demonstrate willingness to guide you to your own success with no agenda.

Mentoring For Free Logo/Small Pictures, Images and Photos

4 comments:

Julie McClelland said...

Hi Mary

Excellent co-relation between all the great mentors and us.

You are so right - Mentoring for Free is great. It will set you 'free' so you can reach your dreams.

Cheers
Julie :-)

JESSiCA said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
JESSiCA said...

Hi Mary,

The picture you put of Athena is beautiful.

Would you mind telling me who is the artist of this painting.

jxalca08@smumn.edu

Thank you,

Jessica

ElBerto said...

Great list of mentors and mentees. You could even extend that to pop culture to include Dr. Dre who mentored eminem, or 2 time champion Hakeem Olujuwon who mentored 5 time champion Kobe Bryant.
Bert
www.findsuccessmentors.com