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Do you think a mentor should charge for his knowledge or give it for free?

meridian_blue

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Charging for advice makes everything you say suspect. By contrast, a mentor giving advice without the expectation of material gain is a sign that what they are saying is genuine. Doubly so if there is evidence they are following their own advice. It shows that they have skin in the game.

That isn't to say you can't charge for sharing specific knowledge. If you are very knowledgeable about a particular subject and people are willing to pay you for that knowledge, there's nothing wrong with charging for it. But in that case you're a consultant, not a mentor.
 

SteveO

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There are people on this forum who do or have charged for mentoring. Would not label those that I know as "suspect".

I have never charged but perhaps my knowledge isn't worth monetary exchange. :)
 
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ChrisV

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Both. Charge people you don't know, give it free to those you love.
 

meridian_blue

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There are people on this forum who do or have charged for mentoring. Would not label those that I know as "suspect".

Definitely a lot of genuine mentors on the forum. I guess what I mean is that there's a lot of 'get rich' teachers out there who charge for advice, which make it hard to sift through for genuine mentoring. Building a reputation, sharing insights/experience, showing that you are implementing your own advice, etc. is what makes people trust you, which allows you to charge for advice and guidance.
 

100ToOne

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Depends on the knowledge imo.

If he was sharing knowledge on how to program a computer game, why not?

However if he's sharing knowledge on spirituality and how to better yourself spiritually, that's an automatic suspicion. Keeping in mind the costs of the books, publishing and all that.

And each topic on its own.
 
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Ismail941

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I would say combination of Both: Paid & FREE

But It depends on the nature of situation

Not All Situations are the Same!
 

G-Man

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Up to the person giving the knowledge. If someone has something valuable it's not my business to say what they should do with it.

As an aside, I'm not sure there's such a thing as free knowledge. To really "know" something almost always requires you to pay a price.
 
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Mattie

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I think I didn't charge for a certain amount of time for the simple reason, you should know what you're doing. Practice makes perfect. I believe after awhile those free people will actually be the ones be word of mouth who pass it along you're a good mentor. When you do start charging, it makes i5 easier.

For me at least, it's like telling a psychologist, "Oh, sorry. I want free service after all your years of studying, working with people, and I feel your advice is not valuable enough to me, to pay you."

Well someone like me would obviously tell you to get lost. My time is just as valuable as yours. Which I didn't work my butt off to sit around and give people free advice all my life.

Sure, you can go get free advice everywhere. Go get it. Whether it's valuable or not. I have no clue.
 

Ernman

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IMHO the term "mentor" is over used. There is nothing wrong with consultants and coaches being paid for their services. But they are not mentors. Mentorship is not about compensation in the material sense. Mentorship is being a confidant, counselor...a trusted adviser. A mentor doesn't clock in/out of a session, their time and counsel is given freely and with genuine concern for the growth and success of the mentee. That does not mean there's anything wrong with professional coaches, counselors, therapists, etc. Just that in my mind there is a difference.
 

broswoodwork

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I don't get it personally, but people way smarter and more successful than me seem to swear by paid coaching/ mentorship.schulz-lucy.jpgMaybe I should smarten up...
 
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From Mars

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Mentorship is not about compensation in the material sense. Mentorship is being a confidant, counselor...a trusted adviser. A mentor doesn't clock in/out of a session, their time and counsel is given freely and with genuine concern for the growth and success of the mentee. That does not mean there's anything wrong with professional coaches, counselors, therapists, etc. Just that in my mind there is a difference.

I totally agree with you. I've met one very wise old broker during my student years. He felt happy that there is someone who is sincerely interested in his life experience & knowledge. I felt like I need something to give in return. When I offered him money he just laughed at me. It was a great experience and I was lucky. After some time he disappeared.

Maybe mentoring (if he has time and desire) is about giving something to the right person and see how is he going to handle it, not just about "here is info, give money and go do it". And even though it's also great and depends on the mentors heart and views.

So yeah. It's neither.
 

A_Random_Guy

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I've heard most people in business make their mentees work for free(without getting any stipend). In return, they provide valuable advice and insight. People take anything and everything free, for granted. It is best to ensure that they work for that knowledge. Charging money isn't bad, but if that mentor tutors more than 10 mentees at one time, it seems business.
 

LittleWolfie

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I think it depends on their mindset,if they claim to believe that adding value makes the money come back to them,then they should give it for free.

Otherwise, they should charge.

I've heard most people in business make their mentees work for free(without getting any stipend). In return, they provide valuable advice and insight.

That is far from free though, it is barter. You give me your time and I will give you mine. You could offer 8 hours working in their business for 1 hour mentorship and both be better off.

Remember time is money.
 
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WJK

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Out of curiosity...
I think about the Karate Kid -- wax on, wax off. There's no free lunch!

I always ask for a favor when I help someone -- and I help a lot of people. I know that if I give something to someone who feels that they don't deserve it, they will hate me. Sometimes it's a promise of a future favor. It's usually small and easy for them to do. When I need something, I have an army of people around all wanting to help me.
 

LittleWolfie

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I think about the Karate Kid -- wax on, wax off. There's no free lunch!

I always ask for a favor when I help someone -- and I help a lot of people. I Sometimes it's a promise of a future favor.
I think of the moon is a harsh mistress, TANSTAFL their ain't no such thing as a free lunch.... otherwise these drinks would be half the price.

I never ask for a favour when helping people,perhaps where I am going wrong.
 

RazorCut

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In a way this whole forum's success is based on free mentorship in as far as people sharing their life lessons so others may benefit.

I'm in two minds over paid mentorship. It can be beneficial but it really depends on the mentor and their motives. There are many who gain great satisfaction and pleasure from helping others, often to their own detriment (helping others when they should be working on their own business). I think this is where some eventually end up charging for their services if they find too many people want help and they find it hard to refuse. To me that seems a good compromise.

There is also the issue of value. If you pay for something you tend to have a stronger relationship with it. The more you pay, usually the more you care. Take courses for example. If you bought two courses on a subject, one you paid $10 for an the other $1000, you will be much more inclined to complete the $1000 course as, rightly or wrongly, you consciously and subconsciously put greater value on the information it contains.

I had a conversion on here with someone who picked up a course for free (on a topic of strong interest whilst it was on offer), and they had never even opened it. If they had paid $200 for it I'm sure they would have got through most of it. So paying can have a strong effect on how we value that information and therefore whether or not we will take action on it.
 
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NursingTn

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Why does it matter to you? I am curious to know what led you to question the ethics of paid vs free mentorship.

Mentorship is a service. Whether it is accessed via financial compensation or some other means is irrelevant to me in most cases.

For example, MJ's mentorship can be obtained via purchasing his books and through free means such as this forum. I see no problem one way or the other with how he executed his mentorship since his work is valuable and uplifts many people.

Then there are mentorships by people who don't know the differences between their heads and their asses for any given subjects who should never provide mentorship, free or paid because not everyone knows their stuff or can be a teacher.
 

A_Random_Guy

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That is far from free though, it is barter. You give me your time and I will give you mine. You could offer 8 hours working in their business for 1 hour mentorship and both be better off.

Remember time is money.
And you are also gaining experience working in their company. That also adds to your resume. I think it is a win-win for someone with zero backgrounds in business. But your point holds true. I better get results for the time I am investing in your business. Otherwise, I become free labour.
 
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LittleWolfie

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And you are also gaining experience working in their company. That also adds to your resume. I think it is a win-win for someone with zero backgrounds in business.

Sure and when they started out, what business did they work in for free to gain experience?

But your point holds true. I better get results for the time I am investing in your business. Otherwise, I become free labour
Yup, and determining that leads me to conclude all offers so far to me are the later, if you never even see the ceo/mentor and are just sweeping with slowlaners where is the value?

This is what I like about barter, it eliminates all the soft social aspects and makes it an honest straight forward exchange for mutual benefit.
 

Kfirdragon

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In my opinion mentorship is free (or at least your mentor won't ask for money directly, but paying for something would give you the option to reach him)

I've had and still have a few mentors, I got some of the mentorships by creative ways, here are a few:

1. I saw his work on IG when he just joined the platform (another guy I followed shouted him out), I messaged him and asked him if he had more information or content about himself because I was really interested in his work. He sent me his biography book, I bought it, sent him the receipt along with another message, when I finished reading it I asked him if I could ask him a few questions, he offered to get on a call, and we've been in touch since then. I have to mention it was very good timing for me because now he has over 100k followers and probably gets a lot of messages a day.

2. I got into a sales job, I impressed the regional manager (and everyone else there for that manner, but he was the guy I wanted to get close with), I shared ideas with him, met with him on weekends and before any work or training hours, eventually me and him made a deal that if I hit a sales number in a time period he would help me on my own project.

3. This guy ran a small sales company and needed someone to drive employees everyday, fill up stocks, take care of inventory, and deal with more stuff that comes up here and there, we had a deal, I did it for barely any pay, in exchange I would be what he called his 'right hand', where eventually he got me involved in his real estate business.

I've got a few more examples like these but they all carry the same point - you don't pay money for the mentorship, you usually pay with something else.

If a 'mentor' wants to charge you, I don't think he can be called a mentor, he's a coach like they said before.

Mentors NEVER need your money (if you think they do, would you still want to be their mentee?), but doing something for them can usually get you very far with them.

And if anyone wants to make the case that when you pay for something you value it more, I think that a mentor shouldn't bother with someone who isn't eager to get their advice and implement, after all, they don't need your money, and can pick better candidates to put their time in.
 

ZF Lee

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I subscribe to Ben Settle’s regular emails, and in the last few days, he’s been promoting his Villains Persuasion book.

In yesterday’ email (I think), he revealed his book sales numbers and a number of other interesting facts about the launch results.

To sum it up, he discovered he had an alarming number of people in his email lists who kept bugging him for free stuff, deadline extensions and even attention-whoring (‘Senpai, see me!’)

Of course it was quite irritating to him. Imagine if he just gave the stuff to them for free!

Sometimes, as sad as it is, certain barriers have to be put up to filter good mentees from the bad.

And anyways, to keep lights running for operations on coming up with teaching materials, a bit of dough is needed.
 
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ChrisV

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That's why a lot of the great coaches and most successful people don't do one-on-one coaching. Tony Robbins is a good example on the coaching side -- he can make $1M per day giving a private group session and much more than that hosting his big events. There's not enough money in the world for him to dedicate a significant amount of time to a one person or one group to coach them. The opportunity cost would be huge.
I think Robbins does do personal coaching. But he charges insane amounts of money for it. He effectively only works with people like Bill Clinton. He name drops them constantly.

Tony Robbins One-On-One Coaching Session
 
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ChrisV

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I don't get it personally, but people way smarter and more successful than me seem to swear by paid coaching/ mentorship.View attachment 26496Maybe I should smarten up...
I think life coaching is a big thing among Entrepreneurs. I'm thinking that OP means someone who is already successful teaching their success though. I mean in general, you're probably not going to get Carl Icahn to 'coach' you, but I'm sure you could get a life coach to teach you productivity hacks. Although Carl Icahn may mentor some shiny new prodigy in the industry if they show promise.

Some people swear that life coaching stuff is effective. I've never tried it personally, but hey whatever works for them.
 

ChrisV

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Absolutely, but I'm guessing (and it's really just a guess) that those 1:1 things are probably not for the money.
Yea exactly. I mean if Jeff Bezos (or whoever) is asking you for coaching.. you just do it. If nothing else it's an awesome thing to add to a resume.
 
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Anit999

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In my opinion, a mentor should charge for his knowledge. The reason is that there is something inherent in people's mind that free is not good. A mentor can apart his/her knowledge for free but there is a high chance that the advice would not be followed. However, if someone pays for a mentorship, it implies that the person is really serious about it and if it is not one time payment but a subscription, then the person would be more motivated to finish the mentorship or course to avoid the next payment.

This is clearly mentioned in "Think and Grow Rich" and I also have the experience of the same. I learn a lot from Coursera. Whenever I pay for the course, I finish it. When I dont, I usually dont finish it
 

FierceRacoon

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What a ridiculous question! Of course they should charge.

Should musicians charge for playing music? How about painters, should they just paint for free? How about high school teachers? Of course, a mentor should charge for mentorship. I cannot see, on what basis would one suggest that mentorship should be free or suspect it if it is free? Unless, of course, some other kind of value is being provided such as equity in a startup given to an advisor.

If you take stories about Zen or martial arts masters or famous renaissance painters and their apprentices, the apprentice would work for the master — all day long. It often involved chopping wood, carrying stones and any other number of chores. It often required a full commitment for a number of years. How can you expect something as significant as sustained guidance from a master in your area to be given for free? How is it fair?

There may be exceptions e.g. when a teacher is representing a religion and is living on donations; still, then you have to usually commit to a particular lifestyle. You have to be paying in some form, whether monetarily or through a sustained commitment.

When people give free advice on a forum, it is not "mentorship". It is casual advice. It does not rise to the level of mentorship because there is no deep understanding of the student and no long-term teacher-student relationship. Have you ever taught anyone? I know, it's fun the first ten or hundred times, but those first times you are not a good teacher yet, so you enjoy the teaching because it is a new experience. But past that point, have you ever taught anyone for any significant length of time? It is work like any other — it takes thought, effort, dedication, answering the call or coming to meet your mentee when you are sick and so forth — and it improves somebody else's life, relationships, income, or career success, not your own. Why on earth would you not be paid for it, if you specialize in guiding another human being? And if you only do it casually, occasionally, and for a short period of time, then you are not a master teacher but are just experimenting with giving random advice. That random advice will not be that useful until you go through the learning curve of learning to adapt your life experiences to many other backgrounds, so the quality of your mentorship will be very poor; that is why you may not be charging for it while you are still learning, how to mentor others.
 

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