Today I introduce you to a new Guest Blogger. She is Pilar Benitez, who brings us the post titled “Put a mentor in your life”. To introduce herself, Pilar tells us about her story.
When I was a little girl and people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I would answer “princess”, because I knew that the next step was to become a Queen. Then I realized that what I wanted was to be a boss, so at the age of 24 I said goodbye to bosses and set up my own business (a translation agency).
The last 20 years have been a lot, both personally and professionally. I no longer have a borrowed computer sitting on my living room table, and I’m not alone doing everything, but it’s been a long road and a lot has happened.
I’ve gone to bed sometimes wondering how I was going to pay my paychecks the next day. I had diarrhea the day I had to make my first layoff (and to this day I admit that I still get sick). Some things always cost). I’ve had clients who have driven me crazy. They’ve been in my ear with ball-busting projects that never came out.
And I have also made my company grow, employed many people in a stable way and I have felt in every moment the owner of my life
Along the way, I got married, had two kids and became the Queen of work-life balance, efficient work, simplification and cell phone reminders. Check it out: I did become Queen after all 😊.
From my personal project soypilarenidiomas.es I help entrepreneurs to turn their projects into reality, with less effort and a better perspective. And we also do translations, of course.
Put a mentor in your life
I have fear. And uncertainty. And a scratch on the top of my head because I don’t know where to start. I feel like a hamster in a wheel. I run and run but I don’t feel like I’m going anywhere.
If you are an entrepreneur, or want to be one, this is what you must have felt more than once. Opening a business or launching yourself into self-employment (what the guiris call one-man’s band and here we call Juan Palomo) generates fear, uncertainty and a little ball in the stomach.
But hey. You are not alone. It turns out that there are people who have gone through the same as you. Who have lived through the same or worse situations. Who have drawn conclusions and learnings from it all, and are there to help you.
They are the mentors. A mentor is someone with experience in a specific field, and who helps and advises you so that you can achieve your goals, saving you some heartaches and giving you fewer laps.
Which, hey, as things stand, not so bad. A mentor is not a coach or a psychologist, and neither is the man at the bank or your mother. A mentor will help you to set goals, to overcome blocks, to see other points of view. It also helps you to locate resources and to get out of uncertainty.
The mentor does not give you the solutions, because he is not the Oracle of Delphi, but he TEACHES you how to think so that YOU find the best solution for you. And for you to be independent and find other solutions on your own later.
The mentor can help you to get out of a situation of blockage, of “I don’t know where to go” and “I don’t even know where to start”
So that you can start the journey, which is what it is all about. Mentors have been through things. They are like Master Yoda, but better looking and with better color in their faces. And they know a lot too.
In my case, I started my company when I was 24 years old, with a borrowed computer and in my living room
I have lived through (and overcome) two economic crises. I have done business that has been a success, but I have also had clients who have cheated me and left without paying. I’ve also hired and fired people.
I have been left without a team twice and had to start from scratch (in August and with a three-month-old baby). I’ve had incredible meetings and experienced bizarre situations that even the Marx Brothers couldn’t handle. And I have given birth without an epidural and survived to tell the tale.
And all those experiences, good, bad and regular, are the ones I put at the disposal of my mentorees to help them land their projects from Unicorn World to Reality, and to walk the path of entrepreneurship with more tools, skills and security.
I am not a fairy godmother, but some of my recipes and solutions will seem like pure magic to you.
Put a mentor in your life. You won’t regret it.
