Matt Higgins’ “most important” advice for finding a highly successful mentor: Don’t ask anyone to mentor you.
The “Shark Tank” investor and CEO of RSE Ventures doesn’t like it when people send him mentorship requests in the mail, he said during CNBC’s “Make It: Your Money” virtual event on Tuesday. “Mentorships don’t just come from two strangers,” he said.
A request for mentorship from a stranger might seem demanding and transactional, Higgins said. If you’d like to get someone to mentor you instead, reach out to us with a specific question you need advice on. Then you can start building a relationship that can later lead to a mentorship.
For example, you could ask Higgins, “I heard on ‘Shark Tank’ that you struggle with imposter syndrome. I have a big interview tomorrow. Can you give me some advice?”
“I’ll answer that,” Higgins said, adding, “Ask a discreet question that makes it easier for someone to help you, and maybe over time an authentic relationship will develop and they will reach out.”
Putting your ego aside and asking for help isn’t embarrassing, Higgins said. And while he says he wasn’t always comfortable with it, he’s learned to accept “the humiliation of putting.” [himself] out there and DM people and explain [his] Mission.”
Higgins isn’t the only Shark Tank star to emphasize the value of mentorship. In an interview in 2020, Mark Cuban said that he wasn’t a “great mentor” because he viewed them as a “shortcut” to success.
“That doesn’t mean mentors and coaches can’t have value,” Cuban said. “[But] There are people who will tell you, “I’m going to make you rich,” and “I have the solution,” even though they’ve never actually done it themselves.”
Daymond John, another “Shark Tank” investor, is less skeptical. Learning from mentors how to recover from failure “changed his life,” he told Make It in 2021. These mentors weren’t necessarily billionaires or CEOs, he added — they were just people in his family and community, who were willing to help him.
“You may not be able to reach Daymond John or Barbara Corcoran,” John said. “But there are mentors everywhere in our community. They’re just in disguise.”
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