Guided Tour

People aren’t born a success.

Guided Tour

It wasn’t too early in the morning, yet it was still intensely foggy.  So, I left the house a little early, just in case I needed the extra time.  Everything was going swimmingly, until I saw an unexpected red light, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, as I approached a major traffic signal just south of I-80.  I slammed on my brakes!

“Whoa!”  I said to myself, feeling very lucky that there wasn’t ice on the highway.

I continued driving on, a little shaken, but just fine, to meet with members of my community of mentors, the Cooperative Venturing Network.  I was to participate as a panel member at VentureCapital.org’s offices in downtown Salt Lake City.  This anticipated meeting was geared to offer insight into how members of the group make a difference in the economy as well as to individual businesses by participating with this venerable, non-profit organization.  And, we were hoping to convince others to donate their talents and experience to help other business owners with us.  After all, we’ve learned that the more experience, diversity and help we associate with, the more effectively we can help, making all of us better-off.  During this panel presentation, discussion and process, members of the audience asked two revealing questions that made me think about life in general and how each of us can do a little better.

The first question was, are successful entrepreneurs are born?  Or, can a person be taught how to create a successful business?

This is a variation of a question you and I may have asked ourselves on occasion.  For example, sometimes I look at the amazing accomplishments of others and ask, “How did they do that?”  Then, I feel a little small in comparison.  Perhaps you’ve had the same experience?

As I answered that direct question, I had no way of knowing that a coming question would be so interconnected.

“We believe,” I responded, “That entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily born.  Over the past thirty years we’ve been able to transfer the knowledge of how to create a scalable, successful business to others seeking to learn.”

This were the words that lead to the other question I told you could benefit all of us.  Here’s a synopsis of the question and its asker. 

A young woman stood up in the back of the room and talked about how she had been a little discouraged because there were not enough successful women entrepreneurs for her to learn from.  In short, she was wondering how she could find someone to mentor her toward success.

Have you ever been wondering if you could find the perfect mentor to guide you through the most important aspects of your life?

This time I wasn’t the one to answer her question.  It was my friend Tara Spalding, President of Hen House, who answered her.

“Have you asked someone to mentor you?”   Tara questioned.  “The biggest complement you can give someone is to ask them to pass their time, knowledge and expertise to you.  You’ll be surprised by who will be willing to mentor you if you approach them appropriately.”

I listened to the conversation and thought, “Wow, mentoring is like getting a guided tour to success!”

By this time, it wasn’t too late in the afternoon, and most of the fog had lifted.  The meeting ended, so I left and started walking down a very familiar sidewalk toward the parking garage to retrieve my car.  Everything was going swimmingly because my thought process had not ended!  I realized that we all seemingly walk the same, broad and well-worn path.  Yet, we all have varied experience and knowledge!  I metaphorically slammed on my brakes, at this thought!

“Whoa!”  I said to myself.  Every one of us can have the experience of living life as if we’re on a guided tour, if we’ll simply reach out to others around us.  The ones that have different, or more experience than we do.  If we’ll do so, and be willing to help each other, we’ll all be feeling very lucky and find a lot more success in every aspect of our lives!