Mentorship Round Two

On Novemeber 18, 2014, I met with my business mentor for the second time. My mentor, Dan Laughlin, and my fellow future business men and women talked about an article we read called "Good is the Enemy of Great" by Jim Collins along with the first chapter of Collins's book called Good to Great. The reading talked about how many companies' struggle to become a great company because they are comfortable with being good. Our mentor discussed questions we had about the reading, and what we thought of it overall. I liked this specific reading because it related to what I want to have in my career: a great company. Dan offered many personal insights that his years of experience brought him, and he gave us many views on how he thought a company can go from good to great. Many things Collins brought up were things that we discussed at length, especially the bus analogy. The bus analogy refers to getting the right people to work with you doing the right things, then to decide where you want to drive off to. Dan completely agreed with Collins, and he used personal experiences to give us examples as to why this is true. He told us that if one day we were the boss, and someone was not on board with our operation, then it has a significantly greater chance of failure, so we may have to find a new person to fill that particular spot. Even one person can make that much of a difference. Dan told us that if we are not headed into the right direction, to start over and get people on your bus who you trust and can work well with to achieve a common goal. To succeed in a company, or any task for that matter, one must be completely open to new ideas and sacrifice in order to obtain the end result. I really enjoyed my session with Dan, and I look forward to talking to him in the future!