Mentors: Healthy for the Soul

I have been in my profession for over 20 years, I own two salons and have managed to build a very successful brand – in a tough and competitive industry.

The secret of my success – hard work and dedication, but I had a lot of help along the way.

Merriam Webster dictionary defines a mentor as someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced and often younger person.

To be a mentor in the hair industry, you need to be on top of all the trends, new techniques and products – as well as the knowledge and skill required to be at the top of your career. You need to be a well rounded hair stylist if you are going to discuss ideas and give advice about our profession. You also should know key people in the industry. This way you’ll be able to provide insight on the profession as a whole.

Here I am with Fabio Sementilli, Vice President of Education, Wella and Salvatore Mauceri, Wella North America Leader at the 2015 Behind The Chair – Stylist Choice Awards in Chicago, Illinois.

I met Fabio about 14 years ago, around the same time I started the first salon. At that time, in my career, I was struggling to make ends meet and having staffing issues. I was really at a low point and starting to lose my passion.

Fabio is always happy, he has such a positive outlook on life and a real passion for the profession/industry. He taught me that achieving success isn’t just about haircuts – it’s about building relationships with people too, especially with your staff. He had such an infectious personality, it made me want to do the same thing. He made being a Stylist fun again.

It inspired me to follow his philosophy in my salon.

“Mentorship across our industry is one of the most valuable gifts we can give our people. It’s really what’s at the core of the beauty industry and how we bring up the next generations of Stylists.”

Fabio Sementilli

Besides having Fabio as one of my mentors, I also adore others such as Nicolas Sayah my son, my mother Amal Sayah and my grandmother Adel Sayah.

Then there is Muhammad Ali, Al Pacino, Albert Einstein, Aristotle, Martin Luther King Jr., Warren Buffett, Harrison Ford, Matthew McConaughey, Peter Lik, Michelangelo, Tom Ford, Vidal Sassoon and Dan Marino. There are more, but I can’t think of all them right now.

Along the way, at different stages in my life, I looked for people to inspire me and get me through whatever I was going through at the time, which was either an unwanted obstacle or a challenge that I enjoyed.

It seems like life is full of that, and I needed to find ways to keep going on and pull through.

Having mentors showed me that others did it and did it well. They had their own challenges along the way, that might have even been greater than mine, but they still made it and made it big.

I thank them for helping me and I look forward to being inspired by many more.

Having mentors is something that I feel happens naturally and is very healthy for our soul. At times, when we need answers to our questions, life has a way of answering it and it’s through someone who has done it before or is doing it now.

Think about who your mentors are and take what you can from them. It’s one of the greatest compliments you can give them.

I am grateful for mine and I hope that I am able to do the same one day for someone else in some small way.

Ramsey Sayah

Last year I had the opportunity to meet Al Pacino – what an experience.