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Comment by gkop | Hacker News Reader

We do have coaches in business, we just call them mentors and advisors.

Where are you going to find a business coach that is a retired business leader whose credibility based on past success justifies your making material changes to your behavior based on their influence? Good luck!

There is an industry of "business coaches" but from I've seen, almost as a rule the coaches are not retired business leaders with undeniable accomplishments (because why would such people want to work for you?). It's a market for lemons (which the OP acknowledges as a "doesn't help" but they don't share how to navigate this issue. Fluff article from someone peddling self-help. Icky, and case in point! How many entrepreneurs is Seth coaching? Oh right, he sells a product, he's not coaching [visibly]...).

So, we get our coaching from mentors and advisors. We still get our coaching.

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That frustrated me for a long while, how hard it is to find a mentor even if you want to. Many of us are this "forced" to reinvent the wheel and stumble in the dark trying to learn as we go. I've gotten used to it and it even had its perks as it allows you to build a more robust sense of self, but I do reckon that it's not always ideal and it used to be a source of considerable emotional drag.

I'm sorry you had that experience. The silver lining is now you have an opportunity to pay it forward, and take on a mentee! It can be super rewarding. And sometimes you can earn advisor shares.

Also you say "even if you want to": Do you agree with the article that business leaders seem not to want coaches? I honestly haven't seen that.

I think if there's a silver lining it's that lessons that hurt get remembered. You make sure you never do that again if it was really painful.

Sometimes being told what you need to do fails to bring home how important it is and why it's really bad if you mishandle it.

Totally. And also, you own ALL your success, and ALL your failure.

Ive never really had a mentor that was clearly defined (and i almost never see that)but Ive definitely had lots of periods in my career where people Ive respected gave me actionable advice and direction when I asked for it. Lots of people are interested in helping others.

Use your own smarts, read books about business building and talk to older people. But don't take any mentor at their word. I got burnt when younger by trusting somone whose advice almost destroyed everything I built. I came out of it stronger but I wish I never had to.

I mean, that's _literally_ the model of Vistage, which is a peer-based group, but lead by a Chair that is that exact "retired business leader whose credibility based on past success justifies your making material changes."

Leaving the Chair out of things, you have organizations like EO, wherein you simply have a peer group of others, but EO is big on talking through a "gestalt" (rather than prescriptive) model, so that the material changes you make are what you take away, rather than an edict you have to follow.

And while there are obviously tons of lemons and charlatans, I think you'd be stunned by just how many ultra-high-performing CEOs and C-suite execs have coaches themselves, sometimes sourced from their companies (or their boards), and sometimes as personal endeavors.

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