Karryon Luxury Takeover March 2024 side lock up
Karryon Luxury Takeover March 2024 side lock up
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Never too old for a mentor

 No one knows everything. Everyone should have a mentor.

 No one knows everything. Everyone should have a mentor.

 

 

“My mentors suggested to me that….” Nothing extraordinary unless the person telling you is earning about $1 million a year, is cool and funky, loving life and has overcome many challenges.

“I know a lot of things Mark but not everything. I don’t have all of the experience that everyone around me has. The easiest way to get that wisdom is to ask someone who I know and trust has the right answer.”

 

What makes the right mentor? 

THEIR main interest is to see your development and success. Their kickback is the joy of sharing their knowledge and information. It keeps it simple, apolitical, pure.

My dad once said to me “By time we had three kids we pretty much knew what we were doing… we just wanted to share it and save you the hassle”. That sums up a lot about mentoring.

 

Who can it be?

Just about anyone. It might be someone from your industry, maybe even works for a competitor. If you have qualified and absolute trust in them, you can absorb their wisdom as opposed to needing years of lessons yourself.

I’ve learnt a lot about business strategy from a karate coach. We’ve never talked business, but we have talked about strengths, weakness, timing, integrity, raising the knowledge of others, when to strike.

 

Does it need to be formal?

One of the deficiencies in Australian travel is the massive gap between being a travel agent and a senior figure in the industry. The travel industry has http://www.travelindustrymentor.com.au/ which is awesome and goes some way to building a bridge.

Over the years I have had 10 or so structured and unstructured mentors. It included my stepdad, a phenomenally successful technology service provider, a venture capitalist, an ex-billion dollar company CEO, my Sensei and in my late 20s, my life/business development coach, Annie.

All of these mentors gave me a phenomenal amount of knowledge applicable to the travel industry, but none of them have ever worked in travel.

 

The biggest lesson I ever got?

There was lots of stuff about staffing, managing people, hiring, tax and business structures, managing offshore relationships, taking risks, being strategic. But there was one big consistent point, which unsurprisingly came from the males. They’d all worked hard with great success yet indifferent ways all “admitted” a failure of sorts.

“That my daughter would only be a baby once. She will only be a child once. Be there.”

They all had regrets they had missed large parts of their children’s upbringing, neglected parts of key relationships in family as they got caught up in business success. That whatever I did, no matter how hard I worked (and at times the hours can be ridiculous across multiple time zones) was to be there for my daughter, to share everything, to be hands-on.

Mark Luckey middle

To get up at 5 AM, get to the office and then get back at 8:30 AM to walk her to school and see her choir performance. Pull an all nighter to make the time to be with her, not your clients. That stuff happens for a short time and often, only once. You can’t, no matter what, buy it back with wealth and success later on. That you CAN be very, very successful by being mindful of family.

I am a far from perfect husband and father but it’s a lesson I learnt from my mentors, that without their wisdom I would possibly make the same mistakes that so many males have made before me. It makes solid sense.

Yesterday we went kite flying. Unfortunately today, I will be “ken”.

After all, who wouldn’t want to make time for her.

Who is your mentor?