A great mentor helps you achieve what seems impossible.
MARIELA DABBAH
Has anyone ever given you the magic secret to breaking through to the next big step in your life?
What did that feel like?
When we are working our way through life, trying to make our best moves, we are often times, flummoxed by the immensity of the next step required to level up.
In a moment like this, when we are entering entirely new territory and working to find our way to the next open pasture, everything feels overwhelming, and our greatest potential is sidelined while we try to calculate what it will take to accelerate with all of our current skills and resources.
The value of a true mentor is one who finds tremendous joy in seeing our progress with no ulterior motive, other than enjoying the satisfaction of helping another human being find their path in life.
I have been on both sides of this relationship, and I can tell you with absolute certainty that each of them carry tremendous value, and for each of them, I have been extraordinarily grateful for the privilege of having had, such a relationship in my life.
When someone is mentoring you and you know they have your best interest at heart, you feel that much more free to listen to their guidance, without continuous fear or trepidation about what their ulterior motive might be.
Conversely, when you are mentoring someone with an open heart, it is very much akin to a parental type relationship in which the sublime satisfaction of watching them metaphorically spread their wings and fly, could not be more joyous.
The choice to embrace another human being, especially one who is non-familial, with this magnitude of trust and mutual appreciation, is one of life’s greatest joys.
In it, you discover new qualities about yourself, regardless of which side of the relationship equation you are experiencing.
There are many times as an entrepreneur, when we feel we are so focused, determined, and intelligent, that there could not possibly be anything that any third-party might bring that we, ourselves, do not already know.
To the contrary, my experience is exactly the opposite. In my opportunities to build such a relationship, I have discovered, regardless of whether I am the mentor or the mentee, that I am in a continuous state of learning.
When you teach something, you learn it that much more, by virtue of your necessity to find a way to explain it intelligently to another.
The process of taking on such an explanation could not be more valuable, for in that introspection required to be ready to teach all that we were certain we knew, comes yet another wave of growth… and for the recipient, they find themselves considerably more enriched for your having expended the time or energy to assist them, in any area they may require your assistance.
As you continue to make your way in life, keep your options open so that you may find your pathway into each of these relationships at the respective moment.
Please share this with others.
Happy Saturday!
Brian Weiner 