A mentor's job is honest feedback, not empty praise. The speaker warns against hidden motives like seeking equity for yourself, arguing that mentors' integrity shapes startup culture and the whole ecosystem around it.
You want to really start organizing and getting involved in the startup community. The two values that I would say are probably top of the list in my view are honesty and integrity, right? Because you need to be honest with these companies. And I wrote an article in Forbes recently, you know, if you're just like, oh man, great job, great job, and they're not doing a great job, that doesn't really help anybody. It doesn't help them. Doesn't help you, doesn't help the startup ecosystem, and you're just patting them on their back as they walk off a plank, right? And then the integrity part is, you know, if you're saying, oh no, I just want to help, but secretly you have this desire to squirrel away some equity or something like that, that's not good either. Because the leadership— a lot of people look to the leader, as Sergio was saying, with the social impact. Group, the values of the leader get instilled in the community. So if you don't have a fundamental integrity in what you're doing and a fundamental integrity to who you are, and of course I believe most people do.
