During my life and the various stages I have encountered, many mentors guided me along the way. Not one of them by my request, they were all informal and genuinely developed relationships. The wise and sacrificial people that saw the hunger and potential in me stepped up to give more than the bare minimum. More guidance, more perspective, and more emotional support than they were asked or required to give. As I draw more wisdom and experience from each day, the closer I get to being able to mentor others. I plan to do as my mentors have done, find the potential in others and act based on the genuine belief that they are worthwhile.
Workplace Example
Last year I began a new job, met new colleagues and started a master’s program at Wayne State University. A colleague on my team has a few more years of experience than I do, is a diligent professional, and a dependable teammate. She has a lot of things going for her, but she seemed hesitant about her future career direction and I sensed that she was looking desperately for that next move that would change her trajectory. She mentioned that she had been avoiding attending graduate school for several years, did not want to take the GMAT entrance exam (Requires hundreds of prep hours) and was unsure if it was worthwhile to pursue. At that moment, there were two paths I could take. The first being that I could avoid the conversation altogether and treat this as “her†dilemma. The second, which I took, was to provide context and perspective on the self-imposed roadblocks that she had built and ensure that she, at the very least, gave the option a fair chance. My perspective on her reasons for not going back to school were as follows. There is never a good period in your life to add hours of work on top of a full-time job, it will require sacrifice regardless of timing, so do it while you are single and solely responsible for yourself. At Wayne State they waive the GMAT test if you have over three years of professional experience (She had 5 years of experience plus a very reputable finance rotational program under her belt). Lastly, I reminded her that all difficult tasks are much more worthwhile than the easy way out, and also much better than the worst option of all, complete inaction. End result, she applied to Wayne State, received full tuition support from our employer, and we even had a class together. When she looks back on the decision I hope she understands that she had the strength all along, she just needed thoughtful perspective and advice from somebody that wanted to see a colleague succeed.
Martial Arts Example
In 2018, I became a martial arts instructor, so it is my duty to provide direction to students as they progress their skills. There is a brown-belt student in our dojo that has lots of potential, sacrifices time to be at class, and is self-motivated. That being said, he is also a teenager and lacks discipline just as I had when I started. The largest strides that he could make prior to testing for black belt were related to focus and attention to detail. During class all kyu’s (Students) are required to stand at attention when an instructor is talking or demonstrating a technique. Some of my fellow teachers are relaxed about this rule, but I knew that this would be an important detail for the brown-belt that needed to sharpen his discipline. After a few rounds of push ups that I requested he do because of his incorrect attention stance he started to be more aware of his surroundings and more focused on what the instructors were conveying. In addition, we have katas, which are pre-arranged sets of movements (simulating a fighting scenario) that each individual must perfect and interpret to move up in the ranks and progress his or her knowledge base. After the young brown-belt sharpened his attention stance I focused on his foot stances as he performed the katas. They are intricate and very difficult to perform with precision. He was performing at an average level, but I suspected he had above average ability when he focused. I have been bearing down on his kata performance and will continue to do so throughout his training. When we were fellow students, we were simply acquaintances. Now that I have more authority to teach and increased responsibility to make him better, we have become friends in pursuit of continuous self-improvement. As I have shown more interest in his progression, the effectiveness of my teaching has grown exponentially. And the more he learns, the more wisdom gets passed down to the next generation of leaders.
Action Request:
If you see an individual that could benefit from your expertise or knowledge, do not wait for them to ask for assistance. Get out and help people any way that you can. The best payback is for them to succeed and help someone else that they come in contact with. Most of the time they will teach you something about life that you had no line of sight to. Or they may unearth a new perspective that you would have been blind to had you not sacrificed time and energy for them. Learn as you teach others, perpetuate wisdom and we will have better communities in the future.