- The difference between a teacher and a mentor.
(upbeat music)
- A teacher is someone who is teaching
based on other people's principles.
Think about your school teacher,
teaching from a textbook. Theories, principles,
different case studies, that's what a teacher's job is,
to teach.
I'll give you a bonus one.
Coach.
A coach is someone who holds you accountable.
Example, a fitness coach.
It could be a basketball coach,
they could use to be a great player,
a great basketball player.
But maybe not the greatest.
So, Tiger Woods has a coach,
Michael Jordon has a coach.
Doesn't mean their coach could preform better,
and play better the game, than the player.
A coach's job is simply to point out the mistakes.
What are you working on to point out your flaws,
to push you beyond your limits,
that's a coach's job.
A mentor, on the other hand,
is someone who has been there and done that.
Who has produced the results that you want.
The biggest difference between a mentor and a teacher,
a teacher has not walked the path.
That teacher's teaching from a book,
teaching from based on
his or her understanding of something.
But a mentor has walked the path.
He's done it.
She's done it.
And now they're speaking from experience.
Reality is, to have a successful life,
you need all three.
Sometimes you need to learn from a teacher,
someone who is teaching you,
share with you other people's findings,
other people's mistakes.
You need a coach to hold you accountable,
to push you.
When you say, I can't go on anymore,
I can't bench press that much, the coach is saying,
one more! one more rep!
You can do one more rep!
right?
And then your mentor,
who knows what you're doing,
who knows the mistakes you're about to make,
before even you make them.
Who knows, hey don't do this,
I did that five years ago,
I did that 20 years ago.
Do this, and don't do that.
A mentor.
You need all three.
Out of all three,
a mentor is the most important
because a mentor has done it.
Been there, done it and continues to do it.
Which is very hard to find.
There aren't a lot of great mentors out there,
and there are not a lot of great mentors,
who are willing to mentor people.
Why don't they mentor people?
Because, its not that they don't want to!
no body ever asks.
You don't ask,
you're afraid to ask,
and you bring nothing to the table,
you're not adding value to your mentor's life.
You're just like a leech,
you just want to suck on to them,
and suck energy out of them.
Verses bringing something to the table.
What can you do?
You can't bring money because you got no money,
but you can bring something else.
Time, volunteer, something that you can do for them.
In exchange, they don't need anything from you.
Chances are, your mentor is successful.
He or she doesn't need a thing from you,
but doesn't mean you don't give them anything.
You got to bring something to the table.
So that's the difference.
Mentor, a coach, a teacher, you need all three.
And out of those, mentor is the most important.