Find a Mentor

Everyone benefits from mentoring. I'm especially grateful to Coach Sonny Lane, former Federal District Judge A. David Mazzone, and medical mentors CAPT Tom Walsh and CAPT Bill Baker. Life is a team sport. 

Let's share examples of mentoring. 

1. Doris Kearns Goodwin wrote "Team of Rivals," which explained how Abraham Lincoln beefed up his cabinet by enlisting political competitors. Preserving the Union outweighed the difficulty of working with opponents.

2. Mr. Rogers reminded viewers about teamwork. "Look for the helpers." Requests for help flatter the person sought. "Mentoring is the only shortcut to excellence." Some insecure coaches don't want help. They worry that others will seek credit for 'their' achievement. I've shared examples of how being a 'credit hog' hurts, such as polio vaccine developer Jonas Salk who never got a Nobel Prize or entry into the National Academy of Sciences because others perceived him as selfish. 

3. Basketball Coach John Calipari meets with a "Personal Board of Directors" periodically. He discusses ideas about basketball and life with them. Develop relationships and trust with others and they'll help each other grow. "I hadn't thought of that." Others help us ask, "what if?" 

4. Alexander the Great became great through the mentoring of the famous philosopher Aristotle, who benefited from the teachings of Socrates and Plato. The myth of the self-made person persists because of ego. 

5. Atul Gawande has written multiple great books - Better, The Checklist Manifesto, and Being Mortal. One of the best commentaries he wrote was "The Coach in the Operating Room" where he shares how a coach made him a better surgeon. 

Embrace help. Be a sharer of anything great. Be open to the possibility of being wrong. 

Lagniappe. Barbarians ask Tolstoy about the greatest leader:

“‘But you have not told us a syllable about the greatest gen­eral and greatest ruler of the world. We want to know some­thing about him. He was a hero. He spoke with a voice of thunder; he laughed like the sunrise and his deeds were strong as the rock and as sweet as the fragrance of roses. The angels appeared to his mother and predicted that the son whom she would con­ceive would become the greatest the stars had ever seen. He was so great that he even forgave the crimes of his greatest enemies and shook brotherly hands with those who had plotted against his life. His name was Lincoln and the country in which he lived is called America, which is so far away that if a youth should journey to reach it he would be an old man when he arrived. Tell us of that man.’"

Lagniappe 2. Be more efficient and faster to the ball.