Comments on: 8 Rules To Being A Good Techstars Mentor

By: micah

micah — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:49:15 +0000

I think thats a great point. Its one of the reasons I highlighted
David's tact of listening, answering, then being quiet.

By: arsachs

arsachs — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 22:12:17 +0000

I think you have to emphasize the importance of mentors listening to the mentees. A few of our mentors would come in and starting speaking at us about what we should be doing with our company without fully taking the time to understand exactly what we did and what we were hoping to accomplish with it. These were mentors that we rarely called upon again. Rather the mentors who really took a few minutes to listen to exactly what problem we were trying to solve, those mentors always seemed to add the most value in the long run.

By: micah

micah — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:49:15 +0000

I think thats a great point. Its one of the reasons I highlighted
David's tact of listening, answering, then being quiet.

By: arsachs

arsachs — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 15:12:17 +0000

By: micah

micah — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:23:14 +0000

Susan, I 100% remember yours and Lisa's names. It was a literary
choice. I felt the paragraph flowed better without a laundry list of
names.

By: susan mernit

susan mernit — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:09:59 +0000

Nice piece, but I'd have a different rule #1: Remember your mentee's names. The “women” you mentioned are Susan and Lisa, unless you're just some mentor guy.
Seriously it was a good piece and I agree David Cohen is marveous. (And you're pretty good yourself, dude, you gave us advice we took, thank you.)

By: micah

micah — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:11:17 +0000

Thanks. I suppose out of everyone, its probably important you dont
think I am full of shit…and, yes that is as big a kiss ass move as
the post, so I get my bio moved up on the page… :)

By: David Cohen

David Cohen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:04:13 +0000

Fantastic post Micah. I didn't know I did that last one, but it makes total sense. Don't over-advise, and always remember your advice is your opinion, not some “ultimate truth.”

By: robjohnson

robjohnson — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:31:40 +0000

I'd add from the other side that the best mentors are the ones who earn the right to be brutally honest with me and then exercise that right frequently.