Why The Best Way to Learn Finance is With a Mentor

Learning new skills is always a challenge, particularly more abstract skills such as finance. Success in the finance world requires a broad range of knowledge and aptitudes. As such it can be a difficult career path to get started on. After all, how can you learn finance without hands-on experience?

Well, fortunately, there are plenty of people who are more than willing to share their hands-on experience and help you become an expert in your own right. Today we’ll be talking about why Mentors are the best people to teach finance and how you could get started on your very own finance career.

Hitting The Books

Before we get to what a Mentor can do for you, let’s talk about what you can do for yourself. More specifically, let’s talk about studying finance independently.

It’s fair to say that you can learn a lot about finance just by studying. From legal systems and how they influence the running of a company, to the broader principles of economics, much of finance boils down, very simply, to what you know.

That being said, it’s important to understand that, far from precluding mentoring, independent study is always at its best when running parallel to the advice of a seasoned expert. After all, while it certainly can yield fruitful results, independent study is also time-consuming and time is the most precious resource we have.

Working with a Mentor, therefore, will help you to direct your independent study, making better use of your time and helping to get you closer to the career you’ve always dreamed of.

Intuition & Principle

Of course, a Mentor’s role isn’t just to direct your study. While you can learn a lot from books, or through the many fantastic online learning resources out there, there are some aspects of finance that have to be learned through practice and this is where your Mentor comes in.

It’s all well and good to understand the principles in theory but there’s a big difference between theory and practise. Let’s say you’re an entrepreneur who’s bringing a new product to market. This product is amazing, it’s incredible, it might even change the world. It’s also unlike anything anyone has ever seen before.

That might sound like a great thing, but when it comes to marketing, uniqueness is very much a double edged sword. How then, can you reasonably predict the success of your product?

How much inventory should you buy? How much should you charge?

This is where an instinct for finance can really come in handy. It’s all well and good to understand supply and demand in theory but in practice, there are often far more variables at play than you might have considered. The world is messy and good financial predictions rely on finding order from that chaos.

Working with an experienced Mentor, they’ll be able to tell you the right questions to ask. They’ll be able to give you practical models for working out your potential sales but they’ll also be able to help you decide which factors to consider and which to dismiss.

A beginner might know the name of every tool in their toolbox but an expert can tell you which tool is the right one.

Soft Skills

All that being said, it’s not just about numbers, models, and principles. In many ways, subject knowledge is only half of expertise in any career and especially in finance.

When talking about finance careers, people often forget to discuss the many soft skills that are required. From networking and building a reputation for yourself, to communication and negotiation, there are so many places where a strong, charismatic personality can help you win out in the finance world.

If that sounds daunting, then don’t panic. People often think of charisma as some innate trait like a person’s height or eye colour. The truth, however, is that charisma can very much be learned.

In a business space, charisma is all to do with how you handle yourself, how competently you can present to others, and how well you can communicate. In short, all the skills you’ll need to successfully network and collaborate with others, both of which are vital aptitudes in a finance career.

Success is never easy but it’s always easier when you’ve got someone on hand to show what to do. If you want to benefit from years of first-hand experience without the need to live them yourself, then what you really need is a Mentor.

Are you looking for a financial Mentor to kickstart your career? Sign up to Career Navig8r today and you can start working with incredible, experienced financial experts who’ll boost your skills and help to show you the road to success!