4/9/2014
Jason Nazar: The Secret to Finding (and Keeping) Mentors - The Accelerators - WSJ
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Guest Mentor Jason Nazar, co-founder and CEO of Docstoc.com: There is one
request almost nobody will ever refuse: Will you be my mentor?
I was an infamously odd student in business school and law school. I never bought
books, rarely went to class, and hardly studied for exams. But I did spent those four
years starting businesses and courting many mentors to help me along the way. Instead
of studying for my classes, I’d set up new meet & greet meetings with successful alums.
At the end of every meeting, I’d ask, “Would you consider being my mentor?” — and
every time, I got the same response.
Ignorance is Blasphemy: Why You Need a
See what
Mentor in the First Place. It’s not about what you
others have to
say about
know or don’t know; the biggest challenges you’ll face
finding a startup
in business are the things you don’t know that you
mentor.
don’t know. Mentors will help identify areas of
opportunity or risk that weren’t even on your radar.
Plus the quickest path to success is to simply model
the person who has already achieved what you want
to. Identify step by step how they achieved their goals, and you have a proven pathway
to your own success. A valuable mentor will provide you this roadmap and a lot of sage
wisdom along the way.
Machiavelli vs. Mother Teresa: Choosing a Mentor. Who should you pick as your
mentor? I’d personally recommend the smartest person who’s also going to answer your
emails/calls and be the hardest on you. The value of a mentor is not to give you an ego
boost or save your feelings from getting hurt. You want someone who’s going to push
you to be the absolute best professional you can be, and call you out when you’re not
living up to your potential. Consider whose advice will ring most true to you; it may be
Shpigler the Shark or the ever-positive Matt Cutts, but pick the person whose points
will pop with you personally.
You’ll Have to Put Out: Getting the Most From Mentors. Mark Suster aptly puts it,
you have better chance of getting struck by lightning than having an amazing mentor
find you. You need to ask folks for help directly. To find them, start with personal
relationships and identify people in your sphere of influence who have some sentimental
or personal (and nonfinancial) incentive to help you. Once you find that mentor, it’s your
responsibility to continuously seek out their advice and build that relationship. Their
counsel is only as valuable as the time you put in to seek it out. (Here are some of my
networking tips for entrepreneurs.)
I Did It My Way: When to Follow/Ignore Mentor’s Counsel. There’s no 11th
commandment, “Thou Shalt Always Follow Thy Mentors Advice.” It’s up to you to take the
input and counsel from a lot of data points and make the best decisions you can. If
you’re constantly going against the counsel of your mentors, you may want to question
your stubbornness. However, if you blindly follow what you mentors tell you to do, you’ll
have to question your backbone. Think of mentors’ advice as a set of ingredients you
http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2013/05/24/jason-nazar-the-secret-to-getting-and-keeping-mentors/
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Jason Nazar: The Secret to Finding (and Keeping) Mentors - The Accelerators - WSJ
can pick and chose from — it’s up to you to make the main course. Lincoln may have
built a Team of Rivals, but he was resolute in making the final decision he thought best.
In those 6 years since grad school, I’ve builtDocstoc into one of the most popular
websites in the world to help grow startups and small businesses. And I’ve achieved this
in large part not because I’m smarter or more talented than the average entrepreneur,
but because I’ve made it habit of seeking out and relying on the counsel of mentors
much smarter and more successful than myself. In fact, I have a secret to share: since
those days at grad school I’ve probably asked over 50 people to be my mentor, and
nobody has turned me down yet.
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Comments (5 of 21)
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10:25 am January 1, 2014
http://blogs.wsj.com/accelerators/2013/05/24/jason-nazar-the-secret-to-getting-and-keeping-mentors/
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4/9/2014
Jason Nazar: The Secret to Finding (and Keeping) Mentors - The Accelerators - WSJ
Jermill Edwards wrote:
The comments below show jealousy and are irrelevant. I completely grasp the concept of this
article which is merely to guide and not babysit. Were people expecting a list of names and
phone numbers? Then he might as well build your business for you and simply give you the
profits. I mentor my personally sponsored affiliates and I am appalled at how many actually want
me to do everything for them rather than guide them.
I have remained genuinely caring but very strict with them now I have a superb team of network
marketers.
We are to help ourselves and look to others only to compliment our efforts or to acquire
knowledge of the unknown.
Please be respectful of this man’s effort and production as if it were that easy then you would’ve
surpassed his success but clearly for the most part that isn’t the case.
I do not know him but i am sure glad I found him. I am proud to say I have a 9th graders
intellectual capacity (so forgive errors if found), I am now doing adult upgrade with the hope of
college, I have a successful and lucrative ecommerce business that I maintain my entire living
from. Not many people have that ability to be self-sufficient.
Thank you for reading
Jermill Edwards
[email protected]
Regards
11:38 pm November 29, 2013
dk wrote:
The author keeps saying how important and popular docstoc.com is. I’ve never heard of it, have
you? According to Alexa, the majority of the hits on docstoc come from India, Indonesia and
Pakistan. It has an over 50% bounce rate and most people don’t stay on the site more than 2
minutes. Come on.
10:50 pm September 9, 2013
trenthefl3sh wrote:
I find there are too many grammatical errors on this site, it’s not attractive at all.
11:01 pm August 18, 2013
Anonymous wrote:
For what it’s worth: I’ve had two very successful runs at companies. Both of these jobs were
rather technical in nature. For the first few months I generally kept quiet. I think it’s important to
spend time observing how the organization works and who is accomplishing what.
During those beginning months I asked questions, lots of questions. I asked about technical
things as well as processes, learning the all the inputs and outputs to each system. While I was
doing this, it became clear to me who knew what. The questions will inevitably come up, but the
successful person will know the right person to ask.
I made mental notes and said to myself “He’s the smartest guy here”. Once you learn who they
are, you need to foster their advice. Some people in the comments think of mentors as
babysitters, but the crux of the issue is that someone has already had your problem. Learn how
they dealt with it and how they would advise you to do it now.
Most importantly, remember that if your mouth is moving, you’re not listening.
2:14 pm August 8, 2013
Renee wrote:
I felt very discouraged by this article until I read the comments. The comments were far more
helpful to me.
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