A mentor’s job is not creating another version of themselves.

A mentor working from their own template will keep steering someone toward choices that suited a different life. The instinct is understandable, since your path is the one you can vouch for, and it produces advice that fits you rather than them. The aim is a person more fully themselves, not a smaller copy of you.

Ask what the person you are helping actually wants, in their terms rather than yours. Then advise toward that. Notice when you are pushing your own preferences and stop.