Mentors teach lessons not found in textbooks
Written by Shirley Lichti for The Record, February 16, 2005

Being an entrepreneur can be very difficult. There are so many choices to make and challenges to overcome. So it can be a godsend to find a mentor, someone to act as a sounding board through some of the tough decisions.

A mentor can also be useful if you're a student trying to better understand what it means to be an entrepreneur. It's not the kind of thing you learn from a textbook -- you really need firsthand exposure.

That's why the Schlegel Centre for Entrepreneurship at Wilfrid Laurier's School of Business and Economics started a mentoring program. Launched in 2003, the program gives second year business students an opportunity to meet entrepreneurs, get exposure to entrepreneurial work environments and learn what it takes to be successful.

The program offers facilitated learning sessions with different activities and speakers. As an example, a session held in November was "Getting Started: What Does it Take?" Sessions are designed to help students learn as well as to meet potential mentors. They are then able to visit their mentor's business and establish a connection for future communication.

The program offers students a rare opportunity to interact with seasoned veterans who can give them firsthand insights into what it takes to run a business.

One Laurier student, Kevin Page, wasn't really sure what to expect when he first got involved, but says that, "listening to speakers and having the chance to ask questions has been awesome."

A site visit to Steve's TV in Kitchener proved to be quite an eye-opener for Page. It taught him that, "if you can't get into something you are passionate about, then forget it."

In spending the time at the store, he realized that Steve's president, Randy Martin, "doesn't have a job. He has a lifestyle and it's not nine to five. He lives the business."

Ruth Boratto's mentor, Connie Deckert, runs Motivair Canada Ltd., a muffler manufacturer in Elmira. "When I got involved with the program, I had no idea I was interested in manufacturing," says Boratto. In fact, the tour of Motivair was the first time Boratto had ever been in a plant.

Seeing Deckert succeed in a male-dominated field has led Boratto to consider the automotive manufacturing industry more carefully. She is currently doing a work term at GM.

Deckert helped Boratto to understand how the industry works and introduced her to networking groups such as Zonta, opening her eyes to resources she didn't realize were available to her.

"Whether or not I'll become an entrepreneur, I don't know yet," says Boratto, but the program certainly "gave me a different perspective from the strictly academic one."

The best part of the program for Mary Bagnulo was attending networking events with her mentor, Cindy Ross Pedersen, president of Adeo Communications in Toronto.

"I got to network with my mentor and with other mentors as well as with students," says Bagnulo. "They let us shadow our mentors and watch how they network in a business environment so I got to see if I was doing it right."

Bagnulo says she talked to her mentor about co-op jobs when she was trying to determine if a job was a good fit. She was surprised at how well she was able to relate to her mentor. "Cindy told me she wasn't at the top of her class, that she was just an average student, and yet she's running a successful company. I'm just an average student too, so it taught me that all I need is determination."

Clearly the students benefit from the mentoring arrangement. But what's in it for the mentors?

Bill Waters, chief executive officer of We-Create, a Waterloo-based Internet software firm, is a Laurier alumnus and wishes there had been a program like this when he was a student.

He's been surprised at the eagerness of some of the students in the program to connect with business people and to get out there and network. "I'm still getting calls from students who ask questions and want to bounce ideas off me."

As an entrepreneur, Waters says he has benefited from the help of others without being able to give anything back to his mentors. For him, the program is payback time.

He notes that the students in this program learn that "people are willing to help them, it's just a matter of asking. And these kids are learning how to ask."

Motivair's Deckert says it's exciting to be in a position to help other women. "I've been in business for 33 years, and when I first started out it was pretty lonesome as a woman."

Deckert feels the program is win/win. Students benefit from the experience of their mentors and the mentors get exposed to young, fresh ideas which helps shake things up.

"The students are just delightful," Deckert notes. "Although some of them are green, you can see the sparks that are going to take them places."

With the help of mentors, they just might get there faster -- and with a better appreciation of what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

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