Mentors Can Make A Difference
Written by Greg Johnson of Johnson Enterprises
I don't know your experiences in life. I can only speak for myself. We all have those who influence our life, but I'm convinced more and more that the right person can drastically affect your outlook on life, your belief system, your belief in yourself, and ultimately your direction in life. I see it as a parent with my own children but I experienced it myself as I've grown from a single young man to a married adult with children who range from their teens to early 20's. My father told me the importance of association and education as he encouraged me to attend an Ivy League University. I learned then the importance of an open mind and a hunger for knowledge.
My real experience however started after graduating from Cornell University and entering the "real" world, you know the world of careers and paychecks, of bills and adult responsibilities. I started a career in healthcare, one I thoroughly enjoyed. I met my wife and we started our life together. Her dreams to me were as important as my own, and so when she said she always dreamed of starting a family and being a full time mother to her children, I faced the reality of either looking for other sources of income, or telling her she needed to leave the children and work anyway. I then realized (another of those lessons) I was fortunate my dad encouraged me to be open minded. A door was opened for me to be an Independent Business Owner, not exactly what I had in mind, but being of Greek Heritage I guess it was in my blood. I started a home based business as an IBO. With little confidence and literally no people skills here I was trying to build a business of my own and boy did I struggle. In fact for several years I had little success and many doubts. But during that time period I saw others succeed so I thought maybe there was the possibility, if I didn't let the naysayers of life cause me to give up.
Fortunately for me I did not have to quit my job to start my business so I still had an income and I looked at the experience much like my college education… lots of materials to study and teachers to learn from. In fact the business system was perfected by a local Pennsylvania business couple, Fred & Linda Harteis. Their success was enormous by my humble standards. Their home which looked like a mansion was not far from our little duplex. They had built an extremely successful Diamond business with what today is Alticor. They were so successful I was intimidated by their success and the size of their independent home based business.
What amazed me was that even though I failed for so long to do much to impress anyone, this couple Fred & Linda Harteis invited us to their home and seemed to take a genuine interest in what we wanted out of life. I couldn't believe that someone this successful would take this much time out of their life for us. I never had a college professor or what I thought was a Bill Gates type success story invite me to his or her home, and certainly never spend hours learning about me, my interests, my fears, not once but on several occasions, and like I said we were not successful as Independent Business Owners.
What is interesting to me, is that they didn't put us down, or belittle our lack of success, but rather were more positive about our potential than we were. Now that's a change. Usually I find people can be negative and impatient when you don't succeed, not in your corner encouraging you. Think about it, Who is in your corner? Who is guiding and directing you through this maze called life? I was beginning to find out what a mentor was. I found out they were not the one who always told you what you wanted to hear, but rather what would challenge you to grow and change, like a coach.
Our business did not grow as quickly as I or my wife wanted, but we didn't listen to all the negative, and decided if we were going to be IBO's (independent business owners) we needed to be independent in our thinking. Fred & Linda Harteis had a system of books, tapes and seminars (which was like going to college to me). It took some confidence changing on our part, and a paradigm shift in our thinking, but after a while our home based business started to grow. We went from just buying consumables (consumer goods you buy anyway) to real business owners reaching the Emerald and Diamond business owner levels. Along the way we were able to vote to elect members to the IBOA International which is the Independent Business Owners Association International, an association which represents business owners. I thought it was a great idea to have the business owners collectively decide on the future of their businesses.
As the business world changed and the world got the "eBuzz" of e-commerce I watched first hand how this couple, our mentors changed along with it. What has impressed me the most through this experience of mentoring and how a mentor can make a difference, is that our mentors, the Harteis' never asked us to do something they first didn't do themselves and when they were wrong they never placed the blame on anyone else. In a world of taking, rather than giving, and pointing the finger at others, rather than accepting responsibility, that I think is an admirable quality, especially if you want to lead and mentor others. Perfect they were not but as a good role model I can't say enough, because they gave us a chance and tried their best to equip us to succeed.
Today we own several successful businesses, and I can confidently say that it was because of their caring and concerning mentorship that we developed the skills and determination to succeed. I only hope to do the same for my children and others, as they did for us, two strangers who wanted to live their dreams.
