Non-Monetization

I have mentored many founders and am currently actively mentoring six. One of the current mentees asked me why I don’t charge for mentoring and that he would gladly pay moving forward. I responded immediately with, “I don’t want to.” I don’t believe everything has to be viewed as “How do I make money off of this?”

Do I begrudge others who are making money mentoring founders? No, I don’t. It’s just not for me. In a larger context, I don’t think we should monetize something just because we can. We need to pass on information, knowledge, and experience more often than not for the sake of passing it on — paying it forward.

We are in a hyper-monetization era, which will probably be from now on. Everyone is trying to get their bag. Everyone’s a content creator, an influencer, or whatever the next thing is. However, some things should and can remain pure, like mentoring.