In February of this year Hak Salih attended Meet A Mentor in London where he met three business owners he's started to support. Here he shares his entrepreneurial story and why he chooses to mentor.

Hak Salih was a stock market investor until 2012, when he decided to take some time out to explore his keen interest in new technologies. From self driving cars to 3D printing, his aim was to research the latest trends and opportunities.

With a successful career under his belt, and an entrepreneurial background, Hak was keen to give something back during that time, and realised that mentoring was a great way to do that, he says:

"I'd helped early stage businesses before as part of an Angel Network so I wasn't entirely new to mentoring, but then I spotted the Get Mentoring training and thought it was an interesting thing to take a look at".

It might lead to the assumption that Hak is just looking for the next big investment, but that's not the case, he says:

"Actually, I feel my main purpose is to help people achieve their dreams, I've always been interested in investing in later stage businesses, but these are at a much earlier stage, it's just helping someone achieve something they'd like to achieve, and if I can't maybe I can signpost them to where they can find help"

One of the business owner's Hak met at Meet a Mentor was Russell Pullan, who runs Fifth Dimension Chocolates, which specialises in luxury handmade chocolates with some unique and unusual flavours, Hak says:

"Russell's main personal objective is to achieve industry acknowledgement for the quality of his chocolates and if I can help him on that journey, that's wonderful"

Hak has also met up with two other inspiring business owners since the event, one in the health and wellbeing sector and the other in outdoor advertising, first via email and then over a coffee, and these are likely to lead to longer term mentoring relationships.

Hak started his working life as an entrepreneur and therefore feels he has a real connection with the highs and lows, the long hours and the stresses – all are very familiar, he says:

"My cultural background was very entrepreneurial, and so when I graduated in 1992, myself and a friend started a newsagent opposite Liverpool Street Station. Unfortunately when the Bishopgate terrorist bomb damaged the station, it destroyed our shop too, and although it eventually got up and running again I had to sell my half of the shop when I started my career as an investment manager. "

Following that time Hak trained as an investment manager and has had many successful years in that field, but now wants to pursue a portfolio approach to his career which incorporates mentoring, he says:

"I take great satisfaction in seeing other people's success, I'm happy to be a sounding board for them to be able to let off steam, I feed back, I don't give advice, I help them look at different paths. From that, they come to their own decisions, then hone that and take it forward. I believe that even if they're not successful with this business idea they're getting lots of experience on the journey to the next one."

As well as helping with his experience, Hak is also keen to help businesses become aware of the support available elsewhere:

"People should know that they don't need to be good at everything, for example if they're great at the product, then it's about partnering with someone who's great at sales and the marketing. It's all about signposting".

We asked if Hak saw mentoring always being a part of his professional life, he said:

"I would always like to do it in some kind of format. I have been asked to do it on a professional basis, because people have asked for more of my time, so I guess it might spark it as a professional service. However when it comes to start ups and very early stage businesses I'd always do it pro bono - it comes back to why I do it, I enjoy seeing others bring an idea to reality and making it a success. Being an entrepreneur is a brave path to choose and I'm happy to support that."

Following the success of Meet A Mentor in February, Hak is also attending April's Meet A Mentor too. Connect with Hak Salih in the IOEE community, or at April's Meet A Mentor in London on 30th April.