Shopify President Harley Finkelstein took to LinkedIn to share his philosophy on mentorship. According to Finkelstein, there are two truths to mentorship which he elaborates in his note. “At any stage of your career, people will tell you it’s important to have mentors; but there are two truths to mentorship: 1. There’s a lot of bad advice out there 2. People put too much stock in one person. Here is my philosophy on mentorship: it’s about Categorization & Evolution,” he wrote.
- “Categorization: When I was younger, I’d find a mentor and try to emulate everything that person did – in all aspects of life. You need different mentors for different areas of your life – they need to be categorized. The person who is your mentor for investing will differ from that who is your role model for parenting who will differ from the role model for scaling your business. Have different mentors for different areas of your life,” he continued.
- “Evolution: As your life evolves, so should your mentors. Mentors need to be swapped out. Not because they are bad mentors, but because your life changes and who you take advice from for the next stages should too. Look at your life and look at who your role models are for specific areas. This is your personal board of directors,” he concluded.
Pitfalls of Mentorship
Social media users dropped comments on his post. “You ignited some fire in me on this one. Enlightening to say the least. So simple yet I’ve never put it all into perspective,” wrote a LinkedIn user.
“Harley Finkelstein thank you for talking about the potential pitfalls of mentorship: 1. There’s a lot of bad advice out there. 2. People put too much stock in one person. I love your points about evolution and categorization. I’ve also seen an assumption that having mentorship almost means outsourcing your decisions. My POV is that advice isn’t gospel. You can decide to take it or leave it. Also, not even the best mentors are mind readers. Only the individual can see all the aspects involved in their decision or a scenario. So I’d add that mentorship is fantastic, but it doesn’t supplant your own decision-making process,” wrote another.
Firebelly Tea
Finkelstein, who is also an entrepreneur is quite active on various social media platforms. Lately, he shared a post cherishing good nine months of his entrepreneurial journey with Firebelly Tea. In a long post on LinkedIn, Shopify President wrote how it all started six years ago and took shape during the coronavirus pandemic. He also gives shoutout to other entrepreneurs and creators through social media posts.
Finkelstein established his first company while he was a student. Also, a lawyer, Finkelstein co-founded the JD/MBA Student Society and the Canadian MBA Oath. The Shopify President has also been awarded Canadian Angel Investor of the Year Award and Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award. He was on the Board of the C100 from 2014 to 2017 and then on the Board of Directors of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) from 2017 to 2020.
