What is a mentor?
I see a mentor as someone with more experience, guiding, or giving advice to someone with less experience. In my own life, my parents, older siblings, and my boss would be considered mentors, just for specific applications. One thing I had to overcome was the thought, "there is one mentor who will show me the way," when in reality, people are specialized, and so you can get amazing advice from people who have a lot of experience in that.
Why would I want mentors?
The primary reason to have mentors is to move along faster. Not make the same mistakes others have made, and take the path of following what's worked for other successful people. However, something I've come to realize is, what worked for them, may not work for you. We all have our own unique personalities and ways we understand things, and often times I'll hear something that a great leader says helped them the most. But that may not be what will help me the most. I have my own challenges to overcome and strengths they may not have!
Key takeaways:
1) A mentor is someone with more experience guiding one with less
2) You want mentors that are especially experienced in what you want to learn
3) You want a mentor because they can help you avoid many of the mistakes they made
4) Not all advice will be helpful