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“You don’t develop courage by being happy in your relationships everyday. You develop it by surviving difficult times and challenging adversity.” -Epicurus

Over the last two decades I have mentored (or tried to mentor) about 40 people, a large percentage of these people have been staff employees who frequently come to me to ask for career or personal advice. I am always open and honest and make an assessment based on what I know about them at that particular point in time.

While many of those people probably took away something from the advice I have given them I can only name about two people in total that have actually followed what I prescribed and actually succeeded in their careers and lives a great deal. One individual went off and started his own business and became rather successful, another individual climbed up the corporate ladder and continues to do so but the rest have floundered.

I currently have a couple of individuals that show great potential to move up and really stand out above the crowd but they are a work in progress. Unfortunately, the 5% success rate often leads me to wonder if I am a horrible mentor or if people are hopeless. The adage, “you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink” comes to mind often. Statistically speaking however, 5% would fall into the normal distribution curve of “the best of the best” and I often wonder if the successes come from the fact that these particular individuals are determined to succeed of if the remaining 95% become content where they land and don’t have a desire to challenge themselves.

The current economic crisis is forcing everyone to challenge themselves often in ways to hold on to their jobs and content lifestyles and perhaps that is a good thing. I don’t find that personal finance is as simple as finding a perfectly balanced budget or stable cash flow but about being able to challenge yourself with how, when, and where you make money and how to handle the difficulties that arise when your budget goes out of whack or your cash flow stumbles.