Value of Mentoring
January is National Mentoring Month. Recently, I read a great book called Halftime
by Bob Buford. It discusses how the first half of life is spent chasing success
and challenges that the second half should be about chasing significance.
As a pirate looking at 40 and Halftime, I’m sure that I am
not alone when I look back and am able to see the relation between causes and
effects. Perhaps over the holidays you took time to reflect a bit on decisions
made and people that help shape you.
I had the incredible experience of interning for the Florida
Marlins and Florida Panthers while in college. Working in the Broward Mall, I
met Bill Beck and struck up a conversation over baseball and life. For a kid
that loves baseball, talking with someone who had worked in Major League
Baseball for years was a treat. Turns out he worked for the Florida Marlins and
a few months later needed an intern when he moved to the Panthers. He called and offered me the job. I learned so much about professionalism from
him. How you can be kind and respectful and get ahead. How to dress the part of a professional. A few years later he mentored the Marlins
management by suggesting a manager named Jack McKeon that he had worked with
while with the Padres to a floundering 2003 team. The rest is history.
The Panthers led to the Marlins and working for Jorge
Arrizurieta. Jorge was tougher, but
sometimes the best mentors are the ones that see potential when you don’t and
pull it out of you. Jorge came from the
political world. He proof read every
line, corrected each gaffe (and at 20 there are plenty) smoothed the edges a
bit. How you addressed people, dealt with deadlines, took ownership of an
issue. Instilling that it’s not what you say, it’s what people hear and feel.
Mentors hold you accountable. They take strokes off your
game. They are also humble and
vulnerable. Nobody wants to hear about
someones perfect life. The best stories
are the ones where someone overcame something.
Do you want to learn from the attorney that proclaims to have never
failed or the one that has more times
than they can count and what they learned from it?
Dr. Robert Lewis talks about “mentoring up”, and “mentoring
down”. Only you know your true blind
spots, passions, and strengths at Halftime.
If you want to be a better spouse, parent, attorney, maybe have a
stronger walk in faith, look for folks that are a few years ahead of you and
are where you want to be. I have yet to
ask someone to teach me about what they have learned in life and been turned
down. Why learn the hard way?
Perhaps you have noticed someone that reminds you of
yourself 15-20 years ago. Take them to
lunch. Ask them about their dreams and help if you can. To a 20 year old kid at the Broward Mall it
made all of the difference in the world.
