Barriers to accessing mentors can mean several things and arises from several underlying problems. In the graphic below, you can see the four areas that prevent entrepreneurs from accessing mentors.
I’ve learned from interviews and observations that having busy schedules act as a hinderance to permitting entrepreneurs and mentors from meeting face-to-face.
Next, being geographically separated literally creates a disconnect between the experienced and novice entrepreneurs.
The need for serendipity to take place, even though that’s the natural way relationships are built and begin, can also be seen as a barrier to connect the experienced and novice entrepreneur. For example, at a networking event where a novice entrepreneur has the intention of finding an experienced entrepreneur to discuss her business, might get stuck in a conversation with a software developer and not have enough time to find that experienced entrepreneur on the other side of the room.
A very important piece of information that took me a while to discover, which also contributes to a lack of access to mentors, is that people with the right experience, whether their entrepreneurs, lawyers, investors, etc, don’t always self-identify as mentors. Even though these individuals could provide the same value as a mentor, the title mentor tends to have a burdensome connotation connected to it.
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