Entrepreneurship Education Starts At Home

As entrepreneurs we are always looking for ways to develop our skills and learn new ones.  You can find yourself in a place where you’re always looking for entrepreneurship education on the receiving end - but maybe not so much on the giving end.

Remember, entrepreneurship is a two-way street.  Being on the receiving end has its obvious benefits. But being able to return the generosity that others extend to you by mentoring a new entrepreneur is also rewarding.

Scott Allen notes some of the benefits of mentoring are:

• You can offer someone else the benefit of not making the same mistakes you made - when you bring experience to the table, there’s just nothing as that is comparable to that information. Offering someone else less experienced than yourself the treasures of your own experience and learning is generous and highly valuable to them.

• You’re expanding your social network - not only is your mentee gaining a highly valuable resource in you, but you’re meeting others through your new found mentor-mentee relationship.  Constantly building bridges helps to grow your existing network.  And a younger newer professional can teach you some new things as well.

• In a mentor-mentee relationship you’re developing skills - as a mentor you are teaching and guiding and through that relationship you are refining your own teaching, managing, strategizing and consulting skills.

Entrepreneurship education takes place every day through some of the smallest and seemingly most insignificant transactions.  Meeting new entrepreneurs and giving back to someone else’s opportunity can have far reaching effects for you and for them.