Jared F. Martinez (The FX Chief™) is an author, forex mentor, educator, market analyst and entrepreneur, as well as the founder of Market Traders Institute, Inc. (MTI). (Learn his strategies for trading success.)
There are 6 billion people on this planet. Just about every person in the world is getting up every day, trying to win a race, trying to become a champion in their own way. But 5.82 billion people, or 97%, don’t make it and end up never getting to retire with any real dignity.
Are you preparing to retire with any level of dignity? Or are you going to be one of the 97% of people that ends up working at a store or depending on the government or your family to help you out? Perhaps you’ll have to move in with your family because you can’t make it on your own financially. Perhaps you’re going to be greeting people at Walmart.
Either way, think about it. Three out of every 100 people make it to a level of dignity. Now, the majority of the world has no idea about their bloodline. They don’t know whether they are a race horse, or a plow horse. All they know is that if they don’t get up and work like a workhorse, they won’t survive.
In too many cases, people hate what they do for a living. Now, think through this. If money wasn’t an issue, what would you do? So, here’s my question.
Do you really love what you do?
I find that the majority of the world really doesn’t love what they do. They just do what they do, because that’s what they have to do to survive.
And what a tragedy it is to go through your life doing something you really don’t want to do. When in reality you could be doing what you wanted to do. Now, if money wasn’t the issue, what would you do with your life?
I want you to think about that question because I’ve learned that if you end up doing something that you absolutely love, that you’re passionate about, then you will end up becoming a master at that thing. I’ve learned that everybody in this world is interested in something and whatever you do, if you become a master of it, people will come from all over the world and pay you a high fee for what you’ve learned.
So here’s one of the most important things you need to do. You need to do what you really love doing in life. And as you go about doing what you really love to do, it’s critically important that you find a mentor in your life.
“Why are mentors important?”
I’m very qualified to answer that question about mentorship with the following answers:
1. Mentors know that greatness lies, not in trying to be somebody, but rather in trying to help somebody.
Everybody’s trying to become successful. And one of the things that I’ve learned is that when you become successful, the worst thing you can do is become arrogant — think you’re better than anybody. One of the things I’ve done is I’ve taught all my children to never look down on anybody, unless you’re looking down to help them up.
We have a responsibility to help one another. God never said, “Go out into the world and impress everyone.” He never said that. He said, “Go out into the world and love everyone, help everyone, be kind to everyone you know, give to everyone.” When He said give, He wasn’t just talking about giving money.
He was talking about giving of your time and your talents. And so if you have some sort of skill, then take it upon yourself to help other people with your skill, become a mentor. If you’re trying to learn something new in your life, then go find a mentor because…
2. A mentor can turn every person they know into a potential future mentor who comes along in their life. We can all learn something from each other.
I don’t know everything nor would I ever pretend to know everything. I love teaching people because I see people can do things I can’t do. I can do things they can’t do, but when we work together, boy, can we do a lot. So everybody can help everybody and everybody can teach everybody something.
3. Mentors are kind to everyone because they understand how hard life’s battles are and they understand that everyone is fighting a difficult battle.
Now, listen to me real good. Everybody has a background. Some of us are proud of our backgrounds. Some of us aren’t very proud of our backgrounds, but we all have backgrounds.
There’s nothing we can do about yesterday. There’s nothing we could do about our past, but our past doesn’t define our future. If we’ve made mistakes, if we’ve done things we shouldn’t do, then today is a new day. We can start to make things better. None of us can go back and start all over, but today we can start to have a beautiful ending.
And so if you have done things that you regret in your past, don’t worry about it. Like I said, it will not define your future. What will define your future is what you start doing today and in the future. And so with this background, I’ve learned that every human life also has burdens. We all walk around with burdens and everybody’s fighting a battle.
And so when you’re getting involved in doing something, as you have your burdens, as you have your battles, as you have your background, find a mentor who can help you stay focused on what you need to be doing and where you need to keep going.
4. Mentors know that what they have done for themselves alone dies with them. What mentors have done and do for others in this world, including how mentors help them in their struggles as they fight their own battles, remains and becomes immortal.
Now think about it. We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. If you only stay focused on selfishness, then you really won’t get out of life what is rightfully yours. Because the more we give, the more we get and mentors love to give. There’s a concept and a mindset where people say, “Why would a mentor help me?”
Here’s the reason a mentor would help you:
5. Successful people “make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” – Winston Churchill
Mentors want to give, they want to help. They know that they’re not going to live in this world forever. And if they can touch the life of another person, then that is all the better for everyone.
