Five years back, when I was in my college,I got one precious advice from my jiju...the importance of which I would be realizing much later. While having an evening walk, he casually said, "In your career, rather in your life, you should always have a good mentor. He or she should be the one whose advice you could seek in any state of dilemma, one who will selflessly guide you to make your mark in your 'karmabhoomi'." I just listened to him and told myself "this is sheer pep-talk..wont come in handy for me", and just let it go.
Five years later, that is today morning, I was reading a chapter from the book "Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis. The title of the chapter was "From Geek to man". The author of this book was a bond salesman in Salomon Brothers, who started his career in the glorious mid-eighties, when mortgages used to rule on wall street. In this chapter, he mentions two of his mentors, Dash Riprock and Alexander, who played a big role in carving his personality in the corporate world. As the chapter proceeds, he mentions how he observed the behavior of these two very different people and absorbed traits from them during his progression from a Salomon Trainee to a geek(the junior most person on trading floor) to a man, i.e a renowned Salesman.
While I was reading this particular chapter,it just struck me. I could very clearly see what my previous informal mentor was trying to tell me...you do not succeed in life with just your talent and a piece of luck. These are just the attributes you happen to possess like everyone else - maybe better than others in some ways which made you land in the current place wherever you are. The real game starts when you correctly recognize someone as your mentor. Believe me, this need not be your team mate, your manager or anyone from your work..it can be any person who you think has been an achiever and can provide you with advice and encouragement in your initial phase of stumbling over every other stone and learning in the process.What my jiju told me and what I realized on some introspection, that we actually do never have a sole mentor for any particular time frame. Even when we don't realize it, we unknowingly admire some person's peculiar quality, seek particular advices from a certain person..and so on. All these people, in some way or other, contribute to our success and failures, and thus are our partial mentors.
As important as it is to identify your true mentor in your personal as well as your professional life, equally important is to keep your eyes and mind open to ideas and suggestions. This is my personal experience that people with a relatively open frame of mind are preferred over those with conservative thinking, as it is easier to make the former ones see the big picture. So, while a great mentor can partially penetrate the mental block of a relatively closed person, even an average one can create wonders by leveraging the talent and caliber of a more open person. As for me, I have gradually become more open to thoughts and ideas, and still have a long way to go. I personally never believed in a single mentor, rather a lot many people whom I happened to interact in some or the other phase of my life, have played small but important role in becoming what I am today. These mentors of mine may not have directly impacted my way of thinking, but I admit that I have learned from their experiences, both good and bad..and I feel that is the best way to learn quickly and capitalize on the positives you have.
Five years later, that is today morning, I was reading a chapter from the book "Liar's Poker" by Michael Lewis. The title of the chapter was "From Geek to man". The author of this book was a bond salesman in Salomon Brothers, who started his career in the glorious mid-eighties, when mortgages used to rule on wall street. In this chapter, he mentions two of his mentors, Dash Riprock and Alexander, who played a big role in carving his personality in the corporate world. As the chapter proceeds, he mentions how he observed the behavior of these two very different people and absorbed traits from them during his progression from a Salomon Trainee to a geek(the junior most person on trading floor) to a man, i.e a renowned Salesman.
While I was reading this particular chapter,it just struck me. I could very clearly see what my previous informal mentor was trying to tell me...you do not succeed in life with just your talent and a piece of luck. These are just the attributes you happen to possess like everyone else - maybe better than others in some ways which made you land in the current place wherever you are. The real game starts when you correctly recognize someone as your mentor. Believe me, this need not be your team mate, your manager or anyone from your work..it can be any person who you think has been an achiever and can provide you with advice and encouragement in your initial phase of stumbling over every other stone and learning in the process.What my jiju told me and what I realized on some introspection, that we actually do never have a sole mentor for any particular time frame. Even when we don't realize it, we unknowingly admire some person's peculiar quality, seek particular advices from a certain person..and so on. All these people, in some way or other, contribute to our success and failures, and thus are our partial mentors.
As important as it is to identify your true mentor in your personal as well as your professional life, equally important is to keep your eyes and mind open to ideas and suggestions. This is my personal experience that people with a relatively open frame of mind are preferred over those with conservative thinking, as it is easier to make the former ones see the big picture. So, while a great mentor can partially penetrate the mental block of a relatively closed person, even an average one can create wonders by leveraging the talent and caliber of a more open person. As for me, I have gradually become more open to thoughts and ideas, and still have a long way to go. I personally never believed in a single mentor, rather a lot many people whom I happened to interact in some or the other phase of my life, have played small but important role in becoming what I am today. These mentors of mine may not have directly impacted my way of thinking, but I admit that I have learned from their experiences, both good and bad..and I feel that is the best way to learn quickly and capitalize on the positives you have.
