At last night’s Girl Geek Dinner (GGD Ottawa) event with Tara @missrogue Hunt, we discussed the importance of mentors in helping with personal and professional success. It can be difficult to seek out mentors but if you take a look around, you’ll see they’re easy to find.

Mentors serve as a trusted teacher or counselor, but a mentorship doesn’t always have to be a formal relationship and a mentor doesn’t always have to be a person working in the same field as yourself. Yes, of course it helps to have a go-to person who’s been there and done that and can give you advice or guidance as you strive to reach your career goals, etc. But…a mentor can pop up in the most unlikely places.

If you take a moment, who in your life represents that role? Perhaps there is a person or persons – a friend, relative or colleague – who already fit into this role but you didn’t consider them in this light before. Perhaps you are a mentor yourself without even realizing it.

Whatever the case, mentors are extremely important. Mentorships are a nurturing relationship giving us the coura