Yes, you read the headline right. How many genuine mentors do we have in this industry? The situation is quite bad especially when everyone is a mentor to the young aspiring minds.
The concept of mentoring is embedded into every Indian’s mind since the practice finds its roots in Indian mythology. Lord Krishna had mentored Arjuna in Mahabharata with all his wisdom. In ancient Indian history, we find Chanakya had mentored Chandragupta Maurya to conquer and consolidate a large empire. Even today young, successful entrepreneurs look towards mentors for help in order to fulfil their dream.
However, except for one’s parents who in all honesty want you to succeed and have no stakes in the game, everyone else, it seems, is out there to run their own agendas through the eyes and legs of young entrepreneurs. This rings even more true for those who are first-time entrepreneurs and hail from small towns.
Let me give you an example of an incident that happened with startup founders who I work with in my professional capacity. Being the founders’ mentor, I had to connect them with industry leaders within the startup industry. Thus far, the story went well, as I introduced them to some industry leaders and mentors.
A Mrs. X was interested in mentoring the company and was also probably looking to get a stake in the startup. In order to get the young founders on board, she promised them a deliverable from her side against many deliverables she had set for the founders. Looking to get their foot in the industry, the founders agreed to her deliverables in hope for getting a good opportunity.
All pre-event deliverables by the founders moved at a good pace. On the first day of the event, everything seemed to be in order and Mrs. X attended the event and enjoyed all the benefits that were promised to her. She had also promised to deliver on her end of the deliverable to the founders the next day and announce it for the eventual winners of the competition.
The young founders had made many calls and messages to Mrs. X on the first day and were assured by her every time that the event was going well. On the final day of the event, Mrs. X came to judge the competition, as part of the deliverables promised to her by the founders.
About 10 minutes before the competition results had to be declared, one of the co-founder consulted her for feedback and got a reassurance again from her that she will announce the winners. She also asked the founders to inform the winner to collect the prize from her directly. Pitching happens, she judges. She announced the results herself along with saying that she is taking the ownership and is supporting the young founders.
One would think that this story would end as per the plan where Mrs. X delivers on her end and everyone live happily thereafter. Unfortunately though, nothing like this happens as Mrs X just vanishes leaving the young co-founders embarrassed and red-faced. The young co-founders because they are energetic and can't believe this theft has happened and try to reach out to her, normally at first and frantically thereafter, but don’t get a response.
After a week, one of the co-founder calls Mrs X from an unidentified number, which she picks up. On the call, she fights with them telling them that the deliverables from the founders were not as per what the promise deliverables were.
The young boy speaks to her and requests her for feedback on where the shortcomings were, so that he can make good in the next event (since he still thinks they are in for long term partnership). But they never heard back from her ever since. The founders are now paying through their nose and have taken a debt to give to the winners because that was promised to the winners. They still can't believe this daylight robbery has killed their dream much before it was about to take a shape.
I am not defending startup founders either and they must have done some mistakes which prompted this reaction.
However, it leaves me to ponder on the question that does the startup ecosystem need mentors and who is a good mentor? Because to me, a good mentor will hold the hand of startups and help them achieve their dream.
While the concept of learning from mentors is embedded in our tradition, do you think Arjuna or Chandragupta would have discovered mentors like Krishna or Chanakya if they were living in this current environment?
Are there any mentors who are willing to share their experience, wisdom selflessly with the young generation? Or has the greed for money, power and fame corrupted the very system and relationship of mentor-mentee also known as one of guru-shishya.
