Platoker

When I think about people exchanging knowledge and skills for this challenge, I immediately start thinking about collaborative consumption and examples of the Sharing Economy.

Also known as 'the peer-to-peer economy, mesh, collaborative economy or collaborative consumption' ( Wikipedia), the Sharing Economy is a socio-economic system built around the sharing/exchange of goods, services or other items.

www.platoker.com – a peer-to-peer sharing site – is one of my favorite examples of a new startup based on the premise of sharing. Essentially, it's an online marketplace where I can share what I have with you and vice versa. eBay and craigslist are also examples of peer-to-peer marketplaces.

Our challenge is all about sharing what we know and do with others who could benefit from that know-how and coaching. How might we learn from the sharing economy – namely, how people share and lend tools, books, and other 'stuff' – that could nicely translate to sharing knowledge and training across generations?

Only you, who participates in this new economy, can give us the answers.

“J.J. Harris was my manager for many years, and I wouldn’t be standing here today if it wasn’t for her. She was an incredible woman in my life. As far as business is concerned, she taught me what it meant to be a woman and to be able to say no — to not just take a job because you are so grateful that a man gave you a job. She used to say to me, 'It’s okay, you can say no,’ and, 'You’re going to make a career on saying no.'”

Find your own mentor, on www.platoker.com.

Unlocking your Potential with a Mentor

The role of a mentor is to help us get beyond our perceived limitations and unlock our potential.

A good mentor is someone who convinces us through their experience and actions that another reality is possible.

A spiritual mentor will help us challenge our small selfish side and will remind us of our shared responsibility, and our greater capacity to experience inner freedom, happiness, and peace of mind through altruistic actions. Essentially they will encourage us to find our higher nobler qualities and put them into action in the service of others.

Likewise a business mentor will help us unlock our motivation, drive, and determination to succeed in our business. They will help us understand the dynamics of a successful business and the keys to building solid foundations for material wealth and prosperity. It is often the hard won experience of a business mentor that can help their students avoid the dead ends, and needless struggles in their particular field of business.

It’s interesting that many successful business mentors are also very spiritually driven people, who are motivated by the desire to help others break through their limited self beliefs and fears, and take their income potential to the next level. Billionaires like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates are now equally famous for their philanthropy. The best mentors I have come across have often stressed the need to have a much bigger vision that just accumulating personal wealth. They encourage us to ask ourselves:

“How are you going to help others become prosperous and happy?”

“How can your business inspire others?”

Find your own mentor, on www.platoker.com.

Here’s Kanye West on his latest protégé, British pop singer Mr. Hudson: “I believe [he] has the potential to be ? one of the most important artists of his generation.” We’ll see about that when Hudson’s album Straight No Chaser comes out later this year, but for now we’re asking a different question: Is he one of the most important protégés of his generation? Acts from the Beatles to the Beastie Boys have coached, signed, mentored, or otherwise launched baby acts as ways of extending their own achievements, but some have done much, much better than others. We’ve ranked the top ten mentors based on the quality and success of their musical offspring.

Mentor your own protégé, on www.platoker.com.

The Importance of Perspective

If you have an experienced mentor it can be life changing and extremely valuable to your personal development and your business. Whether your relationship is just for one year, or ongoing throughout your business journey, mentorship can empower you and drastically increase the chance of your business succeeding. So, if you want to achieve your life goals, find a mentor on www.platoker.com.

Tchaikovsky & Taneyev: Mentor and Protege

Set within the artistic milieu of the last decades of Imperial Russia, this presentation traces the lives and careers of two of that country's most influential composers: Petr Il'ich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), and his student Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (1856-1915) -- the former having enjoyed a worldwide celebrity during his lifetime, and the latter's reputation having been eclipsed to some degree by his more famous mentor, despite his own monumental accomplishments. The two composers eventually became close colleagues, with Taneyev becoming a trusted friend and adviser to Tchaikovsky, and exerting a substantial influence on the elder composer's music and legacy. Taneyev, outliving his mentor by nearly 20 years, went on to contribute substantially to nurturing Russia's musical culture through teaching, performing, composing and writing, and through his immense talents and intellectual gifts, for which he is now recognized as one of the greatest music scholars of 19th century Russia.

Find your own mentor, on www.platoker.com.

The Power of Pairs: Mentor + Protégé = Genius

When I hear the word genius, my thoughts turn towards divine gifts bestowed only upon a lucky few; That it was written in the stars for geniuses and us regular folk just weren’t destined for such great feats.

But with modern science, we now know better. We know that even geniuses in their fields like Mozart and O’Keefe were not divine appointees. Their extraordinary accomplishments were the outcome of intense focus, training, and the mentorship of key individuals focused on their success. Studies and books like Outliers: The Story of Success, show that the best predictors of success are actually not what we might initially think. It’s not about what school you went to or your IQ, both of which are actually quite a bad predictor of success. What they found is that rigorous and focused practice is the most influential factor. Although, as with most things, it’s not quite that simple. I think very few of the people we think of as brilliant or successful have made it without someone dedicated to helping them get there.

That is why www.platoker.com exists, to power your success.

Lessons from the Mentoring of Steve Jobs

•Sometimes a mentor can teach an approach or technique that a protégé uses for decades to come.
•Even if the mentoring relationship doesn’t last a lifetime, it still has a value, and can have lasting benefits.
•Like the other people we’ve featured so far, Jobs was keen to “pay it forward” by mentoring the next generation of technology leaders.

www.platoker.com, where it all starts.

The person who inspired one of the successful entrepreneurs of this decade, Zuckerberg, was a man from a different media world- Don Graham, CEO of Washington Post. Zuckerberg has in turn gone to Graham for insight, even spending several days following the media mogul to learn about life as a CEO. Since 2009, Graham has served on Facebook's board. The duo, separated by 39 years has formed an unlikely relationship. Graham was introduced through a college friend of Zuckerberg in 2005. Zuckerberg also helps Graham with his views on social media and news-sharing.

Find your own mentor, on www.platoker.com.

We all know that Pretty Woman launched Julia Roberts’s career into the stratosphere.

But what about before Pretty Woman? How did she get her break? It turns out that, like many other famous people, she had a mentor to thank for helping her on her way.

Satisfaction producer Alan Greisman told his wife, actress Sally Field, about Julia Roberts. Field decided to help her, and quickly became her mentor. A year later, she pushed to get Roberts cast in a movie she was starring in, Steel Magnolias.

Field and Roberts remained close after Steel Magnolias. Field cast her protégé in a movie she produced, Dying Young.

Mentorship is something Field believes in passionately. She was mentored herself, by Jane Fonda, when she was just starting out as a producer in Hollywood. And she volunteers for the Vital Voices program, which pairs emerging women leaders around the world with mentors who help them build their business and communication skills and achieve their goals.

Find your own mentor, on www.platoker.com.

After a few Youtube videos, Justin Bieber got the attention of the music world. He was a young kid from Canada and far away from the shark infested waters of the music industry. Two famous artists were willing to mentor him: Usher and Justin Timberlake. Justin Bieber chose to go with Usher who became one of his producers. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Find your own mentor, on www.platoker.com.

This is a big one; in fact, 93 percent of wealthy individuals had a mentor who assisted them on their path to success. Finding a great mentor can be challenging, but the payoff can be huge. Condoleezza Rice stresses the importance of finding a mentor, but also gives a warning: "Search for role models you can look up to and people who take an interest in your career. But here's an important warning: you don't have to have mentors who look like you. Had I been waiting for a black, female Soviet specialist mentor, I would still be waiting. Most of my mentors have been old white men, because they were the ones who dominated my field."

There are many reasons mentors are such an important support, but here are a few of the key ones:
•They help you avoid mistakes they themselves have already made.
•They inspire and motivate you to stay on task and keep working toward your goals.
•They connect you with people who can help you along the way ("It's all in who you know").

Start your habit of finding your own mentor, on www.platoker.com.