Business Mentors

Business Mentors

Whether involved in a similar business or not—A mentor will keep us grounded, cause us to question things we assume and offer advice that will save us potential losses later.

A couple of my mentors early on (most important time);

Steven (an entrepreneur I built a restaurant for when I was 19. We both lived about an hour away at the time—so we had 2 hours a day to talk business. He was Greek businessman who started with $5000 of borrowed money in 1971 and by the time I met up with him he had a couple of hundred houses and 2-70 unit apartment buildings and 5 restaurants. The guy was self made and trained in the Greek hard fought business academy.

Bill White was the president of the Amex Bank of Canada for a few years in the 80’s. Started his business having to do with setting up large retail chains with credit cards. He was the one who imparted to me the need to market constantly. He was actually a client in the early days—Very generous for sharing his knowledge.

Any company—large or small needs mentors and friendly folks to help steer and make decisions for your company. One guy making all the decisions is bound to make errors that the collective would catch early. In corporations it is the Board of Directors and or the Steering Committee.

Time must be taken to consider the important questions having to do with strategy and direction. Skip this portion of planning at your peril.

L