John Fernandes - Young mentor driven by passion

Florine Roche

Mangalore, Apr 29: “Passion is not something you follow”, said Cal Newport in the New York Times recently, "It’s something that will follow you as you put in the hard work to become valuable to the world". This quote fits to a T to John Fernandes a young professional mentor who is passionate about his ‘hobby’ of mentoring and grooming youngsters and help them live their goals. This is the first of its kind of initiative as far as Mangalore is concerned and is sure to play an idoneous role in shaping the lives of many youngsters.

John, an alumnus of St Aloysius College with a degree in MBA, is just in his mid-20 and he is ready with his novel programme of professional mentoring but with a difference. He is a mentor who does not have any commercial interests and he says with supreme confidence “my main criteria is not to work for money and money will play a secondary role in my service.” John doesn’t depend on his passion to feed him and he has the financial stability because monetary needs are take care of by the century old ancestral business of the family dealing with security hard ware.

He has divided his time for his work and passion in such a way that he is able to do justice to his triple roles with aplomb - as a head coach for basketball at St Aloysius College, as a mentor and side by side managing his business. Fortunately for him he has the complete and implicit support of his parents who are happy and proud of their son making a difference to the lives of so many youngsters. “Without their unconditional support I could not have thought about pursuing my passion at such a young age”, he ripostes.

At the same time John is aware that anything that comes without monetary value is sneered upon and therefore he has made his service “willingly affordable” where people have the luxury of paying according to their satisfaction. Generally youngsters like him try their hands in making quick bucks soon after acquiring their MBA. But here is John standing tall with this novel concept “Speedex mentorship solutions”. This organization offers an opportunity for youngsters and their anxious parents to help take right decisions in their life with the help of a mentor. “In fact I am passionate about mentoring and was mulling to be a professional mentor in my 40’s. I always wanted to involve with youngsters and somehow I felt there was an urgent need for me to start early for the benefit of the people before they go wrong and mess up with their lives”.

Trigger point

John was unaware of his penchant for mentoring. But a crucial decision to take up basketball coaching when the college priest asked him to shoulder the responsibility during vacations and also regular coaching, John did not dither. Being a player himself he grabbed the opportunity and in the process realized he had the innate ability to touch the lives of many players who confided their problems and sought his advice to overcome them. Slowly he realized students stayed back after the coaching to seek his advice and their number slowly went on swelling. Having realized that he had the knack to be a friend, philosopher and guide John decided that his services should be made available to a wider section of the society and that is how Speedex mentorship solutions was born.

Mentor – the third party

John opines that he got the idea of professional mentoring when he saw lot of youngsters including some of his friends whose lives were totally devastated because of one wrong decision at a crucial stage in their lives. Secondly, there are lots of parents who want to give the best to their children and are oblivious of how to go about. “We give assurances to students and parents that we will be along with them throughout that period.” He hastens to add parents erroneously believe they are the best guide to their children which is not true. He believes that in the changed circumstances where children spend much more time in schools and with their peers than with their parents it is the third party i.e the mentor who plays a quintessential role in guiding the students in the right trail.

John recalls that earlier it is usually a relative who played the role of a mentor in the lives of people. But times have changed and today relatives cannot essay the role of a mentor in the best interest of the mentee. “I believe it is always the third party who is not related to you but still has unconditional vision to see you grow, is the best person to guide and mentor”, John points out.

Mentor vs Counselor

Clearly delineating the difference in the roles of a mentor vis-à-vis a counselor John is quick to add “Counseling makes people stand whereas mentoring makes people stand up walking by their side. We don’t want to be in the front pulling or to be behind pushing. We want to train and make them stand on their feet”. John is of the view that the role of a counselor is limited but as a mentor he is able to give an irresistible and a complete package deal in the form of developing soft skills, talent management, training, recruitment, assistance in employment and help choose right career. John has a three-pronged strategy while mentoring. It includes establishing a rapport with the mentee, preparing the mentee through involvement in training and keeping the right mindset and finally promoting the mentee to realize his goals and see that they get into fields of their aptitude.

He however, insists that the final decision making is left to the mentee with necessary guidance from the mentor. “We are not here to give decisions. We can give only opinions and final decision is left to the mentee. But we want such decision to be a mature one”, he insists.

John says that 14-25 is the right age for mentoring and when there is a problem they should seek help as soon as possible and not allow the matter to aggravate. His services are available on membership basis or on consultation. As life members the mentees have the luxury of asking for a service and get it.

John also adept in handling the biggest and quite challenging issue of career choice where students and parents are often at loggerheads in choosing the career they want and what the parents want them to chose. Most of the times he is able to convince the parties involved and make them understand the futility of parents imposing a career on the child.

There is also the issue of people especially parents taking for granted considering his age. But John assures that though people have some notions when they first see me they completely changed perspective of him when they leave.

John is happy that people have taken his initiative with a positive note. The fact that people come and ask for his services is a testimony to this, he says. With his passion following him with vengeance John is sure to putting his altruistic efforts to give something valuable to the society and a cherished gift to his mentees. He enjoys empowering youngsters and seeing them climb greater heights.

John can be contacted on mobile 98863 90321 and on email – johnfernandes@speedexservices.com