Why you need a mentor before a business card?
You are familiar with this. If you ask me what I wish I had known in my 20s (I am not that old by the way!), I can answer only a few things. Not because I knew them all, but because I believe knowing things and understanding them by heart is very different from each other. And using them is only possible if you really know them by heart which only comes as a result of hard-earned personal experience. Let me explain to you in two scenarios:
Scenario 1
Think that you are 25 years old and you started your first project. You are proud, full of energy and already have a great plan. It is going to be this new social media platform that is going to rock everyone's lives. You start with a language you know python let’s say. Get your codes together, do some API calls, install it in a dedicated server and Voila! The first version is ready. You get one graphic designer to make you a logo, get your business cards ready, your website needed help so you have hired a pair of hands to help you. You have done it in 6 months and it is online.
And then you realize
This same project had already been done, they already have users. That said they have already gotten a second round of funding from investors. You give up.
Scenario 2
Think that you are 25 years old and you started your first project. You are proud, full of energy and before you started you have asked this old guy help. You know he has knowledge of those things. He may be able to help?
You start with your project. You start building it right away and then
This old guy stops you
You: “What do you mean I shouldn’t do this?
Old guy: “You are building a project that has already been done”
You: “No it is not the same. Mine will be much better!”
Old guy: “Don’t. But you see there are no projects that cover the photo sharing with a check-in feature in social media. Why don’t you do that?“
You: “Let me search. Seems ok. I’ll give it a try. Let me start with the logo and the web page”
Old guy: “No, First build an MVP and then see if it will work”
You: “What do you mean? Of course, it will work! It is a good idea”
Old guy: “Listen to me you won’t regret”
You: “Ok”
You start building a small version with no logo, no web page, no business cards. It takes you 3 days to complete and it seems a project done by a 5-year-old. CSS sucks, the web page is one blank page with a couple of pictures that people can log in and share their photos with a check-in feature. And you put it online. You call a couple of friends to ask them to start using it.
Your friends use it than they seem to be happy using it not caring what the page looks like. They start calling their friends to use this new cool project.
This may well be the very beginnings of brbn which turned up to be the biggest photo sharing app called Instagram. (It is not that easy but you get the idea)
So what happened here? Who is this old guy and what does he have to do with this all?
This old guy makes you hop through the possible experience you were going to have to live and learn. It was going to cost you 6 months of sleepless nights, paying for extra help and was going to get you down when you see your project fail.
This old guy is you, well rather were you 20 years ago. Just like you, he started a new project in his 20s but because there was no other old guy to help him, he failed after 6 months. It took him Another 6 months to recover his energy and start a new project, which also failed after a year of work. He learned the facts, experiencing them in person. He knows the pain, what to do and more than anything what NOT to do.
Well if you haven’t guessed yet this old guy is called a Mentor. A real mentor is the one that will help you hop through all the problems and show you the way to go using his experience.
Mentors come in all shapes and sizes
Find a mentor if you don’t have one. It does not need to be a Gandalf figure with a white beard, mentors come in all different size and shapes :)
Believe in your Mentor as much as he believes in you!
