Changing the Way We View Mentorship

For many people, the idea of having a mentor seems a bit outdated. Traditional perspectives around mentorship don’t fit in the context of the modern day.
Mentorship is something that adults do for kids. Or mentorship is a 1-1 relationship with someone in our personal network.

That’s why we at TurtleWise want to promote the idea that:

We should all seek advice from multiple “Gurus” on a given topic relevant to our lives.
Anyone can be a “Guru” and give advice on a given topic of they have experience and/or unique insight.

Seeking and giving advice can be fun, easy, and rewarding!

With this in mind, the traditional idea of mentorship changes from: learning from an older, more experienced person who guides us along our life path to: getting multiple perspectives from people experienced in a given topic who can provide relevant and customized advice.

This isn’t to say that having a dedicated mentor isn’t a good thing. It’s a great thing! But what’s the likelihood that one person is going to have all of the expertise relevant to that challenges in YOUR life? Pretty low.

Myths About Mentoring Relationships

Here are some reasons why a modern approach to mentoring is necessary. Unfortunately, there are a lot of misconceptions about how this all works.

Mentors Have to be Older

The image of an older adult passing on years or decades of wisdom to a bright-eyed youngster is pervasive in the world of mentoring. However, age doesn’t always provide the right insight. In fact, sometimes it’s the younger generation that can teach the older one a thing or two, particularly when it comes to technology.

Mentoring is One-on-One

Although an individual relationship is a typical route to mentoring, it’s no longer necessary. These days, people from all over the world can share knowledge and experience in quick, bite sized exchanges on a simple, easy-to-use platform like Turtlewise.

Mentoring is Not for Everyone

Most people assume that a mentor is a person who guides another on the best life path. However, mentors come in all shapes, sizes, and expertise. As long as you are open to receiving knowledge and experience of someone else, you can benefit from having a mentor.

Mentoring is Long-Term

Another misconception about mentoring is that the people involved have to be committed to each other for months or years at a time. While this may occur within individual relationships, you can benefit from having a short-term mentor as well. Access to so many different experts enables you to glean insight on-demand, rather than signing up for a multi-year process.