Find a Mentor, Be a Mentor!

Find a Mentor, Be a Mentor! Perhaps it goes with growing older. I’ve been cruising memory lane lately. Specifically, I’ve been thinking of so many great people I’ve met along my professional journey. I have been blessed with one mentor after another. They helped my career be more profitable and more fun.

One of my first mentors suggested I try print sales. He was a paper rep. He called on me when I bought printing and ran an in-house print shop. It was tiny. I was the only employee.

This guy suggested a career change and hooked me up with an interview. He’s long gone now. I’ve often wondered if he realized what a difference he made in my life.

Another mentor presented himself a few years later. I was with my second printing company. I was still a rookie, but I was supporting myself on straight commission.

The printing company was a wreck. They were a single shift operation so the plant was empty by 3:30. I would come in from calls late in the day looking for answers and estimates. The two owners, plant manager and bindery foreman would be playing poker on a skid of paper in the warehouse.

My questions were an interruption, and they had no trouble letting me know it. I was quickly labeled a problem because I was too demanding. Every job I sold was evaluated for the problems presented rather than the revenue created. These guys were going out of business at light speed and had no idea.

One of the other reps was a wise old, partially disabled boater. I’ve written about him before. He sold seven figures despite a disability that limited his workday to four hours. He was a great guy.

I sat in his office worrying aloud about how unpopular I was becoming. He looked at me and said, “Billy, how long have you been this way? Have you ever asked anyone to do anything that wasn’t their job? Your customers pay your salary. Those characters playing poker for pennies don’t. In fact, you pay them. If you don’t sell printing they don’t have a printing company. Take care of your customers no matter how mad it makes them.”

I took his advice. I did my best to be courteous, but I never put company comfort ahead of client demands. I learned to ask coworkers, “is it impossible or is it inconvenient.” If it was only inconvenient, I stuck to my demands and let the plant figure out how to make things happen. Doing so catapulted my sales career and saved the company from failure.

Like I shared, I’ve written about this guy before. We became dock neighbors and boating pals. We spent every weekend together for 10 years. He’s long gone but his photo hangs in my office. He could never know the impact his guidance had on my career.

Through the years I’ve had my opportunity to give back. I’ve hired young reps. I taught sales at Clemson University. I joined a mentor/mentee program put together by Hewlett Packard.

Let me share something cool. Teaching others how to do something improves your own skills. It’s interesting. When you explain to a mentee how to sell this or how to navigate office politics or how to work with a difficult person you break down the process. You itemize what you have come to do naturally … instinctively. You teach them but you improve!

The main thing is you do something really cool and honorable. You’re generous with your experience and you improve someone else’s life. It’s the right thing to do.

I love the quote, “when the pupil is ready, a teacher appears.” Find a Mentor, Be a Mentor. You’ll be glad you did.

I had lots of great mentors. I’m grateful for and miss each one. They helped a guy that was stuck. I owe them everything.

Photo? Circa 1983. That’s mentor No. 2, Jim Pipkin, with Her Ladyship. He loved Vodka Gimlets … and the ladies.