The Money Fit Show · Season 2, Episode 14
Mentors, Givers, and Mindful Questions
The right mentor does not remove every obstacle. A good mentor can help you see problems differently, ask better questions, and develop skills that make you more capable of solving those problems yourself. E.A. Csolkavits joins Todd Christensen to share the people who influenced him and the lessons he says he carried forward from those relationships.
Learning from people who help you grow
Play Season 2, Episode 14 directly through Spotify without leaving Money Fit.
Mentorship can change the way you approach a problem
E.A. Csolkavits describes growing up in a working family and beginning to work at a young age. He credits several people he met later with shaping his views about business, generosity, problem-solving, and mentorship.
Much of the conversation centers on the difference between expecting someone else to solve a problem and learning how to think more effectively about the problem yourself. In E.A.'s view, mentors are most useful when they help people grow rather than becoming permanent problem-solvers for them.
He also discusses his framework of “Givers” and “Takers,” which he uses to describe behaviors he associates with helping others grow versus behaviors he believes undermine progress. These labels and frameworks reflect E.A.'s own personal-development philosophy.
Topics covered in this episode
- Growing up as the son of a milkman and learning early lessons about work and running a business.
- Working as a bonded janitor at age 16 and meeting June Martino.
- E.A.'s recollections of June Martino's generosity, kindness, and approachability and the effect those qualities had on him.
- Seeking mentors and eventually becoming an advocate for mentoring other people.
- Working with Sam Robbins in the diamond industry and lessons E.A. says he learned through that relationship.
- E.A.'s account of interviewing more than 1,000 millionaires over two years and hearing stories that often included financial struggles before later success.
- Stories E.A. heard from mentors about responding to economic hardship and creating new opportunities during difficult periods.
- His belief that success often comes from finding useful ways to solve problems for other people.
- The idea that what looks like a money problem may sometimes also involve a shortage of workable ideas, skills, information, or options.
- Why asking a more useful question can sometimes be the first step toward finding a more useful answer.
- Why mentors do not have to solve every problem for someone and can instead help that person develop judgment, skills, and confidence.
- E.A.'s distinction between people he describes as “Givers” and “Takers.”
- His framework of behaviors that he associates with wisdom, wealth, and wellness versus behaviors he associates with defeatism, disruption, and destruction.
- The “Declare And Turn Around,” or DATA Reset, approach E.A. describes for changing behaviors he considers unproductive.
- E.A.'s three recurring phrases about persistence: not giving up, continuing to rise, and working to overcome setbacks.
Ask for guidance, not just an answer
A useful mentor can share experience, identify blind spots, suggest questions, and challenge assumptions. Instead of asking someone to make a financial or career decision for you, ask what they would investigate, what risks they would consider, what they wish they had known earlier, and how they would think through the choice.
Keep learning and asking better questions
Mentorship works best alongside your own learning. Building enough knowledge to ask useful questions can make conversations with experienced people more productive.
E.A. Csolkavits
E.A. Csolkavits joined Todd Christensen as the founder and self-described patriarch of GIVERS University. His work at the time of this episode focused on mentorship, personal development, generosity, persistence, and the behavioral framework he describes as Givers and Takers.
The conversation is built largely around E.A.'s recollections of mentors and successful people he met throughout his life and the principles he says he drew from those relationships.
