The Credibility Gap in Business: Finding Mentors

Law 5 – So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life
Reputation is the cornerstone of power. Through reputation alone you can intimidate and win; once you slip, however, you are vulnerable, and will be attacked on all sides. Make your reputation unassailable. Always be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. Meanwhile, learn to destroy your enemies by opening holes in their own reputations. Then stand aside and let public opinion hang them.
– Robert Greene “48 Laws of Power”

There are many factors that contribute to a successful business. While most successful entrepreneurs play up their success stories with their ability to execute, their charisma to market and their vision to make a difference, they also need one more factor that keep the picture complete. That is credibility. To be successful, you need to have credibility, whether you are a politician, a scientist or an entrepreneur. It is an intangible which can be translated into strength if you know how to take it to your full advantage.

Reputation is a double edged sword. If you have it, do guard it. If you don’t, you have to ensure that you acquire it. The important rule in business is trust. If you betrayed someone’s trust, it is very hard to acquire it back. To the shock of most people, trust is an important rule in business. A lot of people don’t appreciate this fact. There are some people who can cheat and con their way out, but eventually the law and the news of their bad deeds will catch up with them. Hence it is important that when you are doing a business deal, you must ensure that you have something concrete on your side. Prudence is strictly advised for creating your credibility.

Young entrepreneurs always have the problem of credibility because they have less experience. When a young entrepreneur is engaged into a business, there is a tendency of being over confident which translates into arrogance at times. Being less mature, they have the tendency of making reckless and irrational decisions which may destroy the business. Of course, there is an opposite side to the story. The young entrepreneur might look for a grey hair to be their advisor. Sometimes, the advisor might turn out to be the con-man and cause a brilliant business into ruin. So, how do a young entrepreneur solve that problem of the credibility gap?

I will focus more on solving the credibility gap by the mentors approach. In this approach, you have to find the correct mentor to help you with the business. You must remember that most people, be it in Silicon Valley, Cambridge or Singapore don’t part with their money. You must be sincere and ask them for advice only. Only when you showed them the numbers that you are making money from your venture, you also establish the credibility which they can invest in you.

Do your due-diligence
Actually, I might have repeated this rule many times, but Sun Tzu’s rule on “Know your enemy” has been reiterated many times in various blog entries here. You have to find out who you are dealing with. Yes, you are young, but you need to make sure that you can trust that person. Usually, it is alright if you get a mentor through the semi-finals for a business plan competition because these mentors are highly filtered through endorsements of other people. However, if you are starting up and met up someone with the expertise in the networking event, you have to bring in some kind of checks which I believe is important. Here are some suggestions for you:

1. Ask the organizer of the networking event who this potential mentor you have is. Is he a credible person from the industry? What’s his track record?
2. You can take his namecard and do a check on the person by office phone.
3. Speak to other people within the industry to see whether you know this person.
4. If the potential mentor mentioned some names of people he or she knows, you should try to search out those people who you can speak to.

These are things which you must do before you established this person is credible. Of course, nowadays, you can do a google search and you can find out about this person easily. It is important that you should not lose your head. Even if the person who you approached is someone big, you have to also analyze why he or she is eager to work with you. Sometimes, it may not be the right reason. Being skeptical is the attribute for doing due diligence.

I will continue later with other ways of dealing with the credibility gap.

Technocrati Tags: Singapore Entrepreneurs, Mentors, Business