The Harm Which Mentors Can Cause

I’ve been an angel investor for quite a few years, and it seems that everyone now wants to mentor founders. It’s become cool to say, “I mentor startups” and the great thing about being a mentor is that there’s no qualification needed. You could be the entrepreneur’s uncle; his neighbour; or just an acquaintance who’s got grey hair and a lot of “experience” in a particular domain.

The sad truth is that mentors can cause a lot of harm. Unfortunately, they often provide bad advice, because they  know enough to be dangerous. They sound knowledgeable because of their years of experience, but many are stuck in the past because this is where they’ve spent their life. Because they don’t have any skin in the game, they’re not really invested in the founder’s success, and are happy to spout their wisdom at the drop of a hat. While they are happy to provide help in the abstract, they refuse to hold themselves accountable for delivering tangible results.

They may end up misleading founders, and unfortunately lots of naive founders can’t differentiate between good advice and bad advice . After all, at first blush, all mentors seem to be pretty much the same. In fact most founders are so excited about finding a mentor, that they don’t bother to evaluate either the quality of the mentor, or the quality of his advice. This can cause a lot of harm in the long run, because it’s very easy to be misled by a mentor, who’s happy to share his “gyaan”, but not willing to roll up his sleeves and help you with the ground work.

Don’t fall into the trap of assuming that the mentor’s perspective is right just because he happens to be older than you are; or because he founded a successful business; or because he has domain expertise. In fact, this is the kind of mentor who can be the most dangerous, because his knowledge maybe outdated; and his success may have been more  a matter of luck rather than skill.

A good mentor will ask for feedback, so that he can improve, just like his mentee does. After all, the relationship should be mutually beneficial, otherwise it’s likely to flounder. This is why the founder should try to add value to the mentor’s life as well – it cannot just be a one-way street!

A smart founder tries to cultivate many mentors, so that over a period of time, he understands the difference between a good mentor and a bad mentor , because he can track the consequences of implementing the advice they give. He then allows the bad mentor to disappear from his life, or ignores their advice, so he can concentrate on engaging with the good mentors. Finding a good mentor can be a challenging process, and you may burn your fingers in your quest. However, it’s well worth the effort, so that you can make use of the doors a good mentor can open for you.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.