The Benefits of Mentorship
By Michael Choe
What do Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and Bruce Lee have in common? Sure, they’re all incredible role models, amazingly successful, and known for their unique legacies. But none of them could have done it on their own. All of the above had mentors to guide and push them past their limits.
The benefits of mentorship are strongly overlooked. In today’s world filled with advanced technology and easily accessible resources for free lessons and knowledge on almost anything, many of us may not realize the advantages that come from mentorship.
The Ad 2 Hawaii ADvise mentorship program in partnership with AAF Hawaii organizes one-on-one discussion sessions with a local expert in the advertising field. If we break that statement down and look at some of the keywords, we can see some of the key advantages to mentorship.
One-on-one: The mentor is giving his/her undivided attention to a single person. This means the advice and feedback are particularly catered for and largely relevant to the mentee. It’s not a largely distributed e-book or an instructional video for everyone. The mentor is dedicated solely to helping the mentee and his/her specific needs.
Discussion: Mentorship shouldn’t be a simple A to B dialogue. It’s a conversation between mentee and mentor that flows both ways. The mentor is not talking at the mentee but with him/her. The discussion shouldn’t be led by a single person and should be progressing through the contribution of both sides. I don’t believe mentorship is meant to be treated as a class or a lecture.
Local: One of the greatest things about ADvise is that the mentors are all located here on Oahu. The successful projects that he/she has worked on and the companies he/she has worked with are recognizable and can be easily identified. There’s already that connection of being a local in Hawaii and I like to think that breaks the ice a bit even before meeting.
Expert: Apart from the knowledge and skills each mentor has, it’s also the length of experience they have that makes them an expert. The mentors aren’t strangers we’ll never hear of or a bot-like social media account trying to sell mediocre books on success. These are real, credible veterans of the industry who have given their fair share of hard work to get to where they are now. And now they’re offering their guidance to the mentees. For free with no catch!
I’m personally very excited to have my first session with my assigned mentor, and I’m looking forward to meeting the rest of the mentors as well. It’s a privilege to be able to have a mentor in the first place but to be connected with such well-versed freelancers, executives, and agents is truly a golden opportunity. Who knows, maybe the next Zuckerberg, Winfrey, Gates, or Lee will emerge from this.