How Having Mentor Is Really Important In Your Career

How Having Mentor Is Really Important In Your Career

This one is what I wanted to write since two years ago when I started to activate my forbidden blog alive. You will find the facts of how important to have a mentor with some examples of mine and others in this article.

I realized it was necessary to have mentor only after four years of working life in corporate world. I started my professional career in the late of 2012 and I was applying what I have learned in business school by not devoting my time to new learning. 

I devoted all of my time in my work, long working hours at office and got stuck there. Slowly and steadily, I was not learning the new things. I was behaving office life was my life. Office colleagues were my second family. I loved my job more than anything else in the world. But in the late of 2015, I realized that I missed some points in my career life. The working environment were changing, the new era of digital marketing which was not taught in business school was rising and it was the new subject for everyone at that time. I knew that I need to learn and look out more outside of the office world.

But I met with one CEO who was working in big telco company at that time and because of him, I realized that I needed to have mentor if I wanted my career to be successful and achieve the things that I always dreamed of. We met through our jobs and I admired him for his achievements. So, when we met, when I had chance to talk to him in person, I asked him how could he achieve so many things before turning 30. He said he always asked for suggestion and advice from his mentors. He had two mentors who he had close relationship with. These two persons were the backbone of his rocket rising career. By talking to him, I realized that I needed to have mentor who I would like to look up to and ask for advice for my career.

This is why it was important for me to find the mentor in my surrounding to learn how they talk, how they negotiate, how they behave and how they handle the difficult times.

I failed to learn before. But I didn’t want to fail again. The things that made me to handle the situations in the past couldn’t make me to handle the situations in the present and future. Everything was changing and I needed to adapt. In order to adapt and to encounter every situation in my career, I needed to seek out the advice from the people who were at my place before. The rule was that simple.

“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself”. — Oprah Winfrey

After realizing having mentor was really important, I decided to look around my surrounding. Then I found two persons. One was the most patient person with that big position that I have ever known and he was my immediate boss at that time in Samsung. He always offered suggestion to everyone who asked for his suggestions. I learned three things from him; patience, humility and kindness. These three things are really important if you become the leader or someone who makes the decision for your functional department, your own business or project. I was aggressive. But looking at him, I learned how to balance in between.

When I decided to move back to my previous company; Huawei, I spoke out my decision to him. He was so disappointed and he asked me if I would stay if he raised the package because he thought the new package that I was offered was more than the current package. I said it was not because of the package, it was because of big position and bigger challenges. I was about to take the role where I would become the main competitor of him and it would be a big betrayal. I was not proud to make that decision and I was not happy to betray him. It was one of the most difficult decisions that I made in my career until now.

I decided to tell him the truth that I would join back to my previous company. I knew that it would make him really disappointed. But rather than lying to him, I said the truth. He was shock and disappointed. He even requested me to join back after one month of resigning from Samsung. But I couldn’t fulfill his request even though I wished to do. Then he suggested me make a negotiation with the CEO in the previous company who offered me the job back. You see? He was one of the kindest persons that I have ever worked with. I was really thankful for this suggestion. I am not sure if I could make that kind of same suggestion if I was at his place. I am saying the truth. I am glad that we still have good relationship and I can seek more suggestion from him and he is always happy to offer his suggestion till now.

Due to his precious advice, I flew to Bangkok and met with Thomas; my former regional CEO in Huawei. Thomas was really really smart and he secured the position that I was about to accept.

“Mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you than you see in yourself and helps bring out of you” — Bob Proctor

Sometimes we cannot see what kind of talent that we have and what kind of potential that we have. We might be too young to see or too blind to see those. That is why we made the choice based on our own sight by ignoring the area that we could full spread out our wings. During my meeting with Thomas in Shenzhen last year December as he moved back to HQ, he spoke out one thing. It made me dream more and empowered me a lot. He said he saw me as a person who reflected him when he was younger because I was ambitious, I had big picture of myself in my eyes. But I seemed that I couldn’t see it and satisfied with where I was. He wanted me to grow more and learn more because he believed in me. This was why he offered me back with challenging position at young age where I needed to expand my knowledge and ability. I was on cloud nine at that time when I heard his words. I should admit that my eyes were full with tears but I hid those tears cos I didn’t want him to see me as an emotional person. He said I didn’t see the true potential of myself because I was too young. I needed help from someone who could guide me to the right path. 
 I realized that I was right to ask him to be my mentor during our meeting in Bangkok before I joined back to Huawei. When I was about to meet him in Bangkok to secure my position, some people suggested me to ask him to raise the package. But I asked him to be my mentor instead of asking the raise. He proudly accepted it and that was one of my right decisions that I ever made. Well, money is not always important to get the job satisfaction and motivation.

I was blessed to have such kind of great mentor in my life. He was one of the great persons that I could look up to. He gave me one advice this time when we met in Shenzhen, “Always prepare! If you ask for something that you want, you need to prepare for what you ask for. Life will not hand over the thing that you ask for in visible ways. It will give you raw resources and you need to craft those things to make something that you want.” Another very precious advice again!

“A mentor empowers a person to see a possible future and believe it can be obtained” — Shawn Hitchcock

As I mentioned earlier, I met with one CEO of the big telco company through our job connections and I took a chance to ask him if he could be my mentor too after he said the reason he achieved several things and became the CEO at 27 in Pakistan was having great mentors in his life. So, I asked him very excitedly to be my mentor. He said yes. I was really lucky. He is one of the impactful persons in my life. I learned several things from him such as how he negotiated the business deal, how he talked to the people, how he behaved very professionally, how he empowered to others and how he balanced his working life and personal life. After I requested him to be my mentor, he asked me one question “How do you see yourself in five years?” I was blur to answer his easy question. I never thought about it before. Since I was confused to answer, he changed his question to be more precise and asked “What was the most desired job that you want to do in your career?” I answered as “CMO of cos”. He smiled and said “Good answer. You have big picture of yourself. You only need to focus on what you want”. That was the second advice that I had from him. He continually said “How about CEO?” I was so shocked cos I never saw myself in that kind of way. Before I answered, he said “Don’t you ever look down yourself. Always always believe in yourself and dream really big. I started my career as the operator boy when I was 19 who answered the customers’ complaints in one of the operator companies. If I didn’t have the big dream and was not ambitious, I wouldn’t be at this place where I am standing now. I became the head of marketing when I was 25 and became the CEO when I was 27.”

I always believe that I had desire for bigger role after meeting with him. During the second time meet up with him, I told him that I decided to move back to the company where I started my career with bigger position, he was smiling and said “you’re a quick learner, aren’t you? Good! Between 27 and 35 is the best ages to learn a lot because you are kind of matured at that age to learn something from your mistakes. You can ask my suggestion that you need at your new position and I am willing to give you advice that you need.”

During the early days of my new position, I seek out the advice from him on weekly basis. I told him what kind of difficulties that I had and he always offered me the solution and suggestions that I needed. One of the advice that he gave me which I practice every day is “Leave your emotion at office door when you enter into the office. There is no space for personal emotion in the business world.”

From this point, I always try my best to leave my emotion at the office door. I tried as much as possible not to take anything personal at work for every insult that I got. I even could build the good relationship with head of marketing in region. She was one of the reasons that made me to resign in the early of 2016 and join another companies. But I could maintain the relationship with her and I gained her trust to lead my team in Myanmar. When I heard she was going to resign, I sent the long heartfelt thankful letter to her and how she inspired me to learn more. She was surprised to receive the letter from me and wrote back to me. One of the words that she said I would never forget was “You will become the queen Yadanar, that’s what I see in you.” I cried by reading.

“If I hadn’t had mentors, I wouldn’t be here today. I am the product of great mentoring, great coaching. Coaches or mentors are really important. They could be anyone, your husband, other family members or your boss.” — Indra Nooyi

This is my most favorite quote in mentorship. Indra Nooyi worked in Pepsi Co. as CEO for more than 12 years. She just stepped down as CEO and held the chairman position just last year. She is one of the most influential persons in my life. Under her leading, Pepsi Co. grew 80% of sales and the most interesting thing about her was she originally came from India, not from America. Like she said, I am so blessed to say that I wouldn’t have chance to learn a lot if I didn’t have mentors in my life. I would be very confusing to choose the career path at every cross road. It is true that getting a mentor is a shortcut to success. It is really great to seek the advice from them.

Bill Gates asked Warren Buffet to be his mentor when he started Microsoft company.

Richard Branson understands the importance of mentorship. Branson asked British airline entrepreneur, Sir Freddie Laker, for guidance during his struggle to get Virgin Atlantic off the ground. Branson wrote in British newspaper The Sun: “It’s always good to have a helping hand at the start.” Mark Zuckerberg seek out the suggestions from Steve Jobs when he started Facebook and both of them always believed their life paths were meant for more than building the business. They always believed that they could change the world and it is safe to say that both of them could change the world for sure in term of connecting the people.

I was really lucky that I realized the importance of mentorship and coaching only after starting my career for four years. The reason I grew a lot is because of those amazing and incredible people in my life. They are the great teacher and advisor for me to grow more than I always imagine on my own. If you don’t have it, you need to find now. If you have it, it is good and you should use this opportunity to grow more.

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