Mentorship, Bear Traps, and Rented Ferraris
Yesterday’s discussion was downright fun.
Our Growability Collaborative in Greenville spent some time talking about the critical nature of mentors. Such fun and learning.
Whatever you’re setting out to do, has been done before. There’s nothing new under the sun. The most effective way to reach your destination is to learn from the people who have walked this path. Those who not only know the way but also know about all of the bear traps and slippery spots.
Our Collaborative universally concluded that it’s tough to find live, in-person mentors in this day and age. Sure, there are 23-year-old “life coaches” standing by their rented Ferraris, advertising on social media. But the kinds of mentors we are looking for are of much richer caliber.
The difficulty is finding this caliber of a person in your space who also has the bandwidth for a mentorship.
It’s not impossible. But it can be tough.
This is why what we read is so important.
Much of our time together was spent going over our reading lists for 2020, as well as talking about the people we do consider mentors, but who we’ve never met.
Here’s my current list:
Annie Dillard (Writing and creativity)
Eugene Peterson (Spiritual leadership)
C.S. Lewis (Personal spirituality and stories)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Culture and human issues)
James Kouzes/Barry Posner (Leadership)
Seth Godin (business and marketing)