Mentors. A thank you note.

Mentor = a trusted counselor or guide (according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

Their power

There are so many things in our lives we can be thankful for and we can be especially grateful to the people that discovered them. They were creators and mentors to the next generation of creators. They pushed humanity forward through their ideas.

Without Freud, there wouldn’t have been Jung, nor Adler. Without Jim Rohn, there wouldn’t have been Tony Robbins. And so many more in all fields, not just psychology and coaching.

The power of a mentor is in the ability to shorten your road to success. They share their wisdom (and most often) and their mistakes so that you can move faster than them. They move some of the mountains out of your way. However, you still need to act on that knowledge and start your “motor”.

My mentors

Most leaders had a powerful figure that inspired them. Personally, I was really lucky. I had plenty. I was always surrounded by professors and industry experts that were generous with their knowledge. Indeed, I was also curious to learn more and to discover everything that there was hidden under the surface. Curiosity has always been my middle name and luckily it has developed also in the ability to ask a strategic question and see a situation for what it truly is, without any judgment.

Maybe this is how I crafted my luck because luck is always handmade (in my opinion).

Truth be told, it was a bit more than that because they were also really patient. There is something you should know about me – I never accept things just because someone said it is so. An analysis always takes place: is it true? And how it can be useful? This is the reason some apparently simple sayings stuck with me much more than expected – there was a different kind of value in them.

Thank you.

For this article, a challenge appeared – who were truly the people that influenced my life? The list is long. Much longer than I would have thought. From writers long gone, to my own coaches and even my first managers in the corporate field. All these people left a mark and I am grateful for making me a better human first and a better coach second.

The (coaching) list

My actual list of mentors is much longer than this. I wanted to focus only on the mentors that have influenced my coaching journey (as this is the main topic of the blog)

The whole team at NLP Integrative – they were the ones that opened my eyes regarding my skills and potential for coaching and influencing people for the better. They are all fantastic professionals and therapists or coaches and they guided me along my path from an NLP noobie to NLP Practitioner and to NLP Master.

Alain Cardon MCC – one of the most experienced coaches out there still training and coaching people. I was fortunate enough to be trained by him as a systemic coach on my ICF coaching path.

Oana Niculae PCC – a heartful woman first and powerful coach second. She has invited me to a dedicated coaching mentorship program starting this November

Shirzad Chamine – is definitely a figure in the coaching industry that doesn’t need any introduction. He is also the lead trainer in his methodology Positive Intelligence, a training program starting this November.

Tony Robbins – the man who caused a major shift in me after attending a virtual Unleash the Power Within. Looking back, it was the first step that ignited a chain reaction.

Moreover, there is a mountain of psychology and personal motivation books that demands to be mentioned. The most notable writers (for me) are Brene Brown, Carl Jung, Domnica Petrovai, Erich Fromm, Bert Hellinger, John Whittington, Dan Ariely, Eric Berne, Og Mandiano, Dale Carnegie and many more.

This is only my coaching mentors, not even starting on the business ones 😊

I do have another mention. Last, but not least, my father was probably my first mentor in this field. An entrepreneur at heart (and in business) that showed me the real challenges and rewards of being a leader ever since I could remember.

Thank you all.