In The Pursuit Of Your Mentor.

In The Pursuit Of Your Mentor.

They were a quartet, more like a tag team who were so passionate about attending seminars, conferences, symposia, public lecturers, talks etc., all because they had a dream of becoming great speakers in future. They were talented, brilliant, diligent and ambitious young men. Apart from gleaning from the wealth of insight and experiences of these great speakers whose inspiring talks they go to listen to, they also primarily go so as to learn how great speakers speak. After all, as I often say: "If you know where you are going your journey is short, if you know how to get there your journey is shorter, if you know who has got there your journey is shortest..."
They delightfully made it a point of duty to look out for information on where and when any conference or talk was taking place and nothing stopped them from attending, even when a number of times they had to trek long distances to these events, due to lack of transportation fare. As they gleaned these oratorical skills from these speaking greats they also in turn through their speaking enclaves began deploying these skills. The more they did the better they got and confident of their future of becoming great speakers. That was years ago.

These quartet today are living their dreams in different ways and in different parts of the world. One of them currently leads a vibrant and flourishing spiritual organisation as the founding Pastor, another is the Human Resource head in one of the leading African banks, another is doing so well as an inspirational speaker in the United States of America, the last but not the least (the fourth of the quartet) has grown into a quintessential polymath who as a professional speaker and image grooming consultant epitomises impeccable sartorial polish, with a dramatic and effervescent delivery style which illuminates any audience and imparts proven hands-on and recreatable solutions. He founded the first Compere academy in Africa and currently is the Chief Operating Officer of a leading international finishing academy in Nigeria. That fourth of the quartet is ME! Oladele Olunike.


Pursuit is the proof of desire! You will never possess what you are unwilling to pursue. Your desire is portrayed by your pursuit. Your pursuit will always be in the direction of your desire. When I see what you are pursuing, I can tell what you are aiming to possess. The story of my three friends and I that I shared with you earlier shows that it is what you desire that will determine what you will go after and what you go after determines what is possible for you to possess. We desired years ago to become great speakers and so we went after great speakers, listening to them and learning how to become great speakers. What we are steadily possessing today tells a lot about our desires and pursuit years ago.  Whatever commands your pursuit betrays your desire. If you must make the most of mentorship, if you must glean all that is available and possible from your mentor's wealth of insight and experience (so as to become who you have envisioned yourself to be)  you must make the pursuit of your mentor a non-negotiable priority. The mentor you don't pursue his or her 'possessions' you don't possess. To enjoy your mentor's grace you must endure your mentor's chase.

I have had the pleasure of mentoring and still mentor quite a number of people- some young, some my age mate and others older than me. It is amazing to see how some of them have accused me of not get in touch with them after seeing or hearing from them after a long time. So amusing I must say. While I am not saying the mentor should not bother to get in touch with his or her proteges or mentees to find out how they are keeping, because I do that actually and I am fortunate to have mentors over me who also get in touch with me. However, I am saying it is your fundamental responsibility as a protege to get in touch or keep in touch with your mentor. Please my dear friend, permit me to say to you colloquially as I often say that; "It is the one that is seeking something that MUST possess a longer arm so as to collect it." By that I mean it is the one who needs something that MUST GO AFTER the one from whom he or she wants to collect it. You as the protege is the one who needs to glean from your mentor's insight, experience etc. In other words, you are the one who NEEDS something from your mentor and hence MUST GO AFTER him or her! At the risk of presenting this immodestly; what you intend to glean from your mentor, he or she already has and is using it for his or her own benefit. So your mentor 'DOES NOT NEED' you, you are the one that NEEDS your mentor and what he or she has to offer you.  The pursuit of your mentor therefore is non-negotiable if you must make the most of your relationship (mentorship) with him or her.

Pursuing your mentor.

Pursuing Your Mentor- 
To pursue your mentor means to get in touch with your mentor regularly and stay in touch with him or her. This affords you the opportunity to update your mentor regularly about your progress, successes, challenges and areas of needed improvement. In the course of this you are able to receive instruction, guidance, correction and learn more from his or her life on how you can get better personally and professionally. Staying in touch also affords you the opportunity to serve your mentor,(materially and manually) which is the pathway to drawing down on the grace your mentor bears. This is what empowers the knowledge, wisdom, experience, skills etc. you glean from your mentor into delivering same results as that of your mentor for you (as discussed in details in a previous post-Relating With Your Million Dollar Mentor). You should never wait for your mentor to be the one 'chasing' you to know how you are fairing (a genuine mentor will though). Think about it, how fair can it be that the one who gives you his or her time, shares his or her insight and experience with you at no cost to you, so that you can get better is still the one 'chasing' you to know how you are making progress?
You should make it a point of duty to be in touch with your mentor at least once a week; whether by one-one-one contact, telephone call or e-mail etc. Please note that where distance is not a challenge, meeting your mentor one-on-one is most effective. I have mentors over my life who care a lot about my well being personally and professionally but it is my responsibility to carry them along on how I am making progress with what I am gleaning from them. Even the one that resides in a country far from where I reside is not left out in my staying in touch. So my dear friend, distance is not an excuse not to keep in touch with your mentor. Remember, the mentor you don't pursue his or her 'possessions' you don't possess!


Benefits Of Pursuing Your Mentor-

 1. Higher Company-   

Higher company.

Company affects destiny. It is your company that determines your accomplishment. It is who you go with that determines where you end. Your companying with your mentor will naturally give you opportunity to company with people in his or her circle of influence and level of accomplishment, who ordinarily you would have not had access to. This procures for you short and long term benefits. I have business people I relate with today (many of whom are ahead of me in age, accomplishment etc.) through my companying with my mentors.

If the fact that your mentor is a person of results, progressive success etc. among other things are what endeared you to him or her, your companying with him or her will eventually make such results rob off on you. I have come into some very lucrative business deals over the years because of the higher companies I have come into through companying with my mentors. Your opportunity of higher company with your mentor will ultimately command for you higher accomplishment.


2. Favour-

Favour.

One of the many things that will come to you as benefit as you company with your mentor and serve him or her faithfully is that you will begin to enjoy the kinds of favour (privileges) that you never experienced before. These privileges or favours when you are with mentor (physically) or not will become part of your new experience. Your faithful service to your mentor (materially and manually) is what precipitates this order of favours.

I have lost count (of the magnitude) of favours over the years that I have enjoyed and still enjoy through the pursuit of my mentors. I mean many times I come into the kinds of exact favours that they enjoy in business, grace, results and even material enrichment! Now, please DO NOT get this wrong, I DID NOT set out to seek to enjoy the order of favours that my mentors enjoy. The truth is you can't pursue your mentor FAITHFULLY- serving him or her and not enjoy THE SAME order of favour and more.


3. Honour-

Honour.

I have been to quite a number of very high profile events, places and met highly placed people with my mentors (without being invited personally) over the years, sometimes in the line of duty or business. In all of these outings I have been accorded THE SAME kind of dignifying treatment that befits my mentors' statuses, not because I 'qualify' to be there but because when you pursue your mentor, serving him or her faithfully you come into honour and even THE SAME kind your mentor enjoys. Service, my friend, is the pathway to honour!


 4. Sweatless Achievement-

Sweatless achievement.

One of the basic benefits that mentorship delivers to every faithful protege is the cutting short of the protege's learning and destiny travel curve. As you enjoy a regular access to your mentor's wealth of experience (through staying in touch),  insight and wisdom on professional and (sometimes) personal matters, receiving instruction and guidance on how to be better professionally, your speed and ease of achievement is enhanced. Sweatless achievement becomes a regular experience with you because you receive advance counsels from your mentor on how better to approach destiny tasks which ordinarily you would have erred at, (perhaps a few times) before you achieve success. With the pursuit of your mentor the wisdom that you glean from your mentor's experience makes you achieve success sweatlessly.


5. A Sought-After Solutionist-

Sought-after solutionist.

 As you continue to pick your mentor's brain and leverage on his or her insight on all professional and personal matters and your sweatless achievements steadily soar, you will command the attention of other younger folks and even your peers who may be amazed at your progress in your professional pursuit. Soon they will begin to seek your opinion and counsel on matters of importance and soon start to look up to you for guidance. You will soon become a sought-after solutionist and mentor to others, as requests to be mentored by these people will start to come your way. It was just about a year after I began being mentored by my first mentor years ago that younger folks and even my peers started requesting that I mentor them. Not because they liked my face but because they started seeing around me the kind of success they desired to have and ultimately in me the picture of their preferred future. Today, just as my mentors have increased in number, the number of my proteges across the globe has also soared astronomically and it's still growing. In fact, I get an average of 4 requests per month from young and upwardly mobile professionals who need me to mentor them.


Please permit me to reiterate that if you must mine all the diamonds in the rich minefield of your mentor's life; making the most of this relationship so as to better your life, the pursuit of your mentor is most fundamental and critical! You can't pursue your mentor and all these aforementioned benefits won't be added to you. However, please NEVER let these benefits be your motive for pursuing your mentor. They are guaranteed fringe benefits as long as you pursue your mentor faithfully without seeking personal gains, as seeking personal gains turns you from a protege to a parasite!  You are assured of my best intentions in your (faithful) pursuit of your mentor!