Saturday, 28 January 2017

Article: The Power of Mentorship | By: Ayomide Olatunji


           

Many want to be great but a few know the secrets. A lot of people  are ignorantly labouring in the wrong  things. “The labour of the foolish man wearieth everyone of them because  HE KNOWETH NOT HOW to go to the city.” ECC 10:15.

         Not everyone is struggling to succeed. While some are succeeding cheaply others  are struggling tirelessly. It takes light to succeed. Wisdom demands that we identify the people that are commanding the results we want and pronto we become an 'overnight' success.

          There are no overnight successes anywhere. What we have are overnight learners who have succeeded in translating knowledge to results. One might ask, where do I get such knowledge that would lead to success? Who has this wisdom in store? Is it really possible for any man to have such feat-commanding wisdom? Those questions are almost as old as the human race. “ Whence then cometh wisdom?  and where is the place of understanding?  Job 28:20. The fact that there are successful  people around tells us people have what it takes to succeed  and they are trading with them already.

        You see friends, success is predictable. If you want to know what God thinks about it (success ), you just need to check the guys He gave it to. God has made manifold wisdom  available to make our stay here on earth worthwhile. One of such manifold  wisdom is MENTORSHIP.


 MENTORSHIP

      Man is a being meant to be guided. When he is not guided, he tends to make mistakes every now and then. As he grows, his responsibilities tend to grow at seemingly higher rate. He cannot afford to make costly mistakes. Life, they say  has no duplicate. We must therefore make the most of our stay here on earth.

     One of the ways of making our stay meaningful here on earth is breaking down our larger than life aspirations into realizable piecemeal. This we call “goals”. Though our goals are personal, yet someone has done what we want to do before. The words of old wise king Solomon  comes to mind, “ There is nothing  new under the sun.” Time-honored truth!

       Someone might in fact be doing what we want to do at the moment. It behoves on us to link up with such and learn from them. This is why mentorship  becomes imperative for anyone who wants to succeed without wasting enormous time, resources  and efforts.

       One of the most abused word is mentorship. It is used to describe just any form of relationship. Like Myles Munroe said, “when the purpose of a thing is not known, abuse is inevitable. “ As simple as the word sounds, it carries a transforming power that is yet record it’s first failure.

    For you to succeed, you cannot afford  to be a” lone ranger”. Everything  you ever need to succeed is with someone. As a matter of necessity you  must have someone ahead to put you through. Successful people are mentored people. They have mentors for every aspect of their lives. They don’t hazard guesses neither do they arrive at decisions without cross checking with their mentors. Little wonder they come out tops in their endeavours. You can’t afford to walk  through the maze of life blindfolded by ignorance and complacency. It’s a luxury you can’t afford
           You must understand  that there are two factors involved in a successful mentorship programme  .
  1. The people
  2.  The Process.

THE  PEOPLE
This talks about the personalities involved  in a successful mentorship programme. There are two people involved in a successful mentorship. The first  is the Mentee the second is the Mentor.  It is the interaction of these two personalities that kick-starts a successful mentorship.

THE MENTEE
v  A Mentee is someone desirous of knowing more than his present capacity through the help of well-informed person . That is, he sees his present capacity  as been grossly inadequate for his future and makes conscious efforts  to his increase his knowledge bank. The distance between your future and present is the knowledge available to you. When your capacity for knowledge increases, the gap between you and your desired end is bridged. A Mentee must be knowledge-thirsty. This forms the bedrock of any success in life. Complacency is the greatest undoing of most people . Our Lord Jesus Christ rebukes the complacent in Rev 3:17.

What clearly marks a real mentee out is an unquenchable  desire to know more. When you think you have arrived, then you have actually stagnated. It is this unquenchable desire to know more that drives the mentee to look for those who have demonstrated such. When you are thoroughly satisfied with what you know, then check it! The great Apostle Paul despite his erudition and vast knowledge still hungered for knowledge. (Phil 3:10).

Ignorance is a deadly disease. That has sent many to their untimely grave both physically and otherwise. Why struggle when everything is available  for your success. When your taste for knowledge increases significantly and progressively then success for you is a matter of when, all things been equal.



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