And so, in the fullness of time,
at the end of summer, 2006,
and at the end of a long road trip,
I have come home again,
to begin this project which has taken
a lifetime of preparation,
and which can not possibly ever be finished.
It has now been almost 14 years
since I traded my software company
for a bank account with many zeros
and started in on a life of adventure,
leisure, learning and mentoring.
Of all these many pursuits,
mentoring has been the most satisfying.
This brief history brings us up to the current moment,
when the decision is made to commit to the project
of mentoring students in The Art and Science of Success in Business.
And to Do as well as to Teach.
The plan is simple:
To share, here, in writing,
the lessons of my mentoring sessions as they occur,
but with names obscured to protect the privacy of students
and their business interests.
The lessons, however, will be chosen
to be as universally applicable as possible.
I chose the blog format,
because it is something with which I am familiar
(see My Other Life, and Diary of a Poolshooter,
and Fast Mikie's Epic Road Trip)
and because it is a standardized structure,
the path of least resistance to beginning it now.
The first decision in the startup of the blog
was to give it a title.
It is always a challenge to reduce a concept
to a few meaninful words.
I Googled "The Art and Science of Success in Business"
and found nothing at all on the internet,
which was quite surprising.
But what astonished me is that there was one single
document by that title on the very computer I am using,
created over seven years ago,
done in the format of a book proposal,
but of course, I never followed through on it at the time.
I was too busy enjoying flying my open-cockpit biplane,
playing freestyle frisbee on the beach, shooting pool, doing yoga,
exotic cars, and the Good Life with family and friends.
On balance, Life has been good to me,
even considering the Bankruptcy, Divorce and Cancer,
all of which I seem to have survived.
Now is a good time to increase my "Paying it Forward".
Welcome to this place.
May you find much success in your endeavors.
The use of the blog format is one way to do it, but the principle of making a public commitment to achieving some goal is a great way to intensify your focus and perseverance. It's a technique I have been using for years, and I find that it works!
ReplyDeleteSearch for a mentor.
ReplyDeleteIt should be mandatory for grade schools to teach the above statement. I attribute all of my business blunders for lack of a mentor. This platform is a perfect learning environment! Your knowledge is appreciated.
Talents.- In such a highly developed humanity as the present, each individual naturally has access to many talents. Each has an inborn talent, but only in a few is that degree of toughness, endurance, and energy born and trained that he really becomes a talent, becomes what he is,- that is, that he discharges it in works and actions. ......