Entrepreneurial Epiphanies: If you want to improve something about yourself…
- Paul Hogendoorn
- Oct 5
- 2 min read
Updated: Oct 6
If you want to improve something about yourself, coach someone else, and then practice what you teach.
A few months ago, a young entrepreneur I was mentoring asked me to coach him and help him be a better prospector. It made me look back on my career and reflect on what worked, and what didn’t. After some reflection, I was able to share some ideas and tips, and after that, my advice was simple: be disciplined, consistent and intentional.
“How do I do those things?” he asked. “Simple”, I said. Then I had to think about it and try explain how he could do it.
After some thought, I came up with a simple scorecard that tracked activity and opportunity progression, from initial outreach through connection escalation to making an ask. It made sense to him, and it made me wonder why I never did something like that myself. And then he asked me, “will you do it with me, and can we have a 15-minute accountability meeting every Monday, Wednesday and Friday?”.
I replied that I thought it was a fine idea, and I could certainly carve out 15 minutes 3 times a week, but by agreeing, I put myself in a position where I had to be disciplined, intentional, and do the work too.
The results were amazing – not just for him, but for me too. I was supposed to be mentoring and coaching him, for his benefit, but I was benefiting from the exercise too.
We’ve all heard the expression, “do as I say, and not as I do”, but when you are coaching someone else, you might have some initial credibility cached because of what you accomplished earlier in your career, but you have a lot more credibility if you practice what you preach. And when you do, the whole process benefits you as much as it benefits your mentee – and maybe even more.
And that brings to mind another expression, “it is better to give than to receive.”
I’m sure there’s many a high school teacher that knows the joy of seeing a student surpass them in whatever subject or discipline they are teaching. It’s the same with coaching or mentoring someone in business, or sales, or entrepreneurship. The unexpected benefit is that as you help your student, protégé or mentee grow and get better, you are growing and getting better yourself. Which brings two other old axioms to mind, “iron sharpens iron”, and “the more you give, the more you get back”.
If you get the opportunity to share your experience, or some of the wisdom you gained along the way, and someone asks you to share it with them, share it generously. And if you practice what you teach, you’ll be amazed at how much of it benefits you at the same time.
If you want to check out other blogs in this series, here's a link to some others
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