I once spent thousands of dollars on a business coach who had never built anything real.
\nA founder friend once asked me:
\n\u201cShould I hire a business coach or find a mentor?\u201d
\nI didn\u2019t give him theory. I told him this story.
\nYears ago, I hired a very popular business coach. Great website. Great testimonials. Looked impressive on paper.
\nBut there was one problem: he had never built a business.
\nHe knew every model and every framework.
\nBut when I spoke about things like:
\nHe turned it into a classroom.
\nWe started talking about \u201ccash flow management principles\u201d and \u201cemployee retention strategies\u201d.
\nI understood the words.
\nBut what I really needed was: \u201cWhat do I do on Monday morning?\u201d
\nAround the same time, I met an older founder.
\nWhen I shared the same problems with him,
\nhis reaction was very different. He said:
\n\u201cI\u2019ve been through this.
\nHere\u2019s what I tried.
\nHere\u2019s what worked.
\nHere\u2019s what failed.\u201d
\nNo theory. Just scars and experience.
\nHis advice was simple, clear and very practical.
\nThat\u2019s when I realised we mix up coaches and mentors all the time.
\nYou go to a coach when the main problem is you:
\nA good coach works on your behaviour, patterns and mindset.
\nThey don\u2019t run your business for you.
\nThey help you upgrade yourself so you can run it better.
\nYou go to a mentor when the main problem is the business:
\nHere, you need someone who has actually built and run a business.
\nSomeone who has seen bad years, wrong hires, cash crunches, tough clients \u2013 and still stayed in the game.
\nMost founders will need both, but not at the same time.
\nIn the early stage, you usually need a mentor so you don\u2019t crash the business.
\nOnce the business is stable, and you feel you are holding back the next level, that\u2019s when a coach is useful.
\nSo before you pick anyone, ask yourself:
\nDon\u2019t choose based on titles or hype.
\nChoose based on where you are and what you truly need right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I once spent thousands of dollars on a business coach who had never built anything real.
\nA founder friend once asked me:
\n\u201cShould I hire a business coach or find a mentor?\u201d
\nI didn\u2019t give him theory. I <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-linkedin-posts","wpcat-18-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1136\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakamsani.me\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}