Hi, ,

There’s no magic recipe to becoming an influential professional or freelancer, but there might be some insights and career doors that might not need to be opened, because of manipulation, scams, bad intended people, or other things that make you learn more about clients/companies from hell.

1. When you approach a defensive driving you can instantly achieve:
   
   1. You consciously reduce the dangers associated with driving your career. Defensive driving techniques reduce the likelihood of a collision or incident and can even save costs related to life/energy maintenance and fuel (mind) consumption, by driving smoothly and steadily into your career.
   

   To do and gain at this you need a mentor, with a driving license as a professor/ experienced specialist in that field.

   In fact, there’s no need for you to find a mentor in your industry if he manages to inspire you about leadership and accountability.

   
   2. Learn the strategic way. A defensive driver does not just concentrate on his or her own actions but anticipates the likely actions of other road users.
   

   3. Awareness is key to defensive driving, ensuring you are aware of potential hazards and other road users’ actions around you, and enabling you to take proactive action to avoid an incident in your career.

    

   4. To enable you to anticipate hazards, look 15 seconds ahead, giving yourself time to react. Aim to always scan your mirrors and look beyond the vehicle in front as this will help you to be aware of possible hazards before it is too late.
   
   This is what we do at Career Doors - we enable you to drive safely in every career journey.

   But first, if you’re not already part of the global Career doors, go ahead and subscribe to the newsletter and be notified of when my next article is published.

3 advice to meet and (very importantly) keep your mentor

1. Meet your mentor through books, online conferences, courses and learn about him/her, make some interaction. Be an active supporter. Don’t expect a person that invested thousands of hours, experimented with diverse projects and invested countless dollars into growing their careers, to give you something for free.

Create a win-win relationship - mentorship requires an energy and value exchange.

Ask your future mentor some specific questions, after you enjoy reading, hearing, and writing after their example. Use specific questions after you figure out a new perspective.

2. Build rapport

Go to the basics of relationships. You can’t gain a client with one email, you need to build awareness and nourish and engage your audience. The same thing with your mentor.

When approaching mentors, you need to ask yourself “Why am I someone they should invest time in?” Time away from their families, businesses, and other commitments? Hmmm. If you can’t confidently answer that question, no wonder you’re getting ghosted!

3. Mentorship is not meant to be a one-way street.
Have you ever stopped to consider what you bring to the table as a mentee?

Chances are, you have past experience, skills, and knowledge that you can share with a potential mentor to help them propel their business forward. Perhaps you have design skills, video editing skills, social media knowledge, or customer service experience. By offering to provide a service for free in exchange for mentorship, you’re not only honoring your mentor’s time by leading with value, but you’re potentially saving them a lot of money to have to pay for that skill elsewhere.

So, offer your skills, pay their bills and you have a win-win relationship that can ignite your business.