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.
7 comments:
Supriya,
I am a bit confused with the timelines....if you had been advised 5 years back, how come 6 years later becomes today morning ?
Now coming to the advice, mentors often give you the moral support or the motivation to go ahead in life, move on or put your best foot forward. But, is "always" the correct word for it? When it comes to your life, I feel its a pretty long time; and always is a very strong word for it.
I am not sure whether you would mix up a friend with a mentor as there is a thin line of difference between them. A true friend can always be a mentor, but a mentor might not necessarily be a true friend ( think of the corporate world ).
@PD...corrected the timelines.. :) Thanks for pointing out..
And i never confused a friend with a mentor..my point was that every person who has had an impact on you is a mentor in some or the other way. And actually i do not think there is a co-relation between friendship and mentorship...but then that is just my perception!
I agree with you on this. Having influential mentors in the course of ones life could turn it around completely. It not only shapes what we are today, but also affects all our life's decisions.
This piece of crap is for those who can not decisively think of what is right or wrong; or rather those who want someone to be blamed later for their decisions...
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