Article #82 : Thank you Mentors

A mentor is someone who guides the other person in any field. At some point or the other, every one of us need someone’s assistance in a particular aspect or aspects. Do you agree? Now don’t tell me that we can Google or chatgpt everything these days, then I would say they are your mentors. 

Well, today I am going to narrate the role of mentors in my life.

Starting with my mom, the most important life skill in which she mentored me was cooking. I learnt it from my mom through the phone calls. 

"Hello Mom, Tamarind juice was added more in the Tamarind Rice"

"That's ok, add some more plain rice. It would balance"

"Hello Mom, Sambar is little spicy now"

"That's ok, add Jaggery. The taste gets balanced"

And the list goes on.

I understood that whatever you make, if it isn't up to the mark, you can always repair and even set it as per your expectations. I wonder how I always felt that cooking was a tough job until my mentor mom made it easy for me and changed my perspective. 

Then my dad, who taught me how to manage the finances and how to stay contended. 

"Dad, I am not earning like Mukesh Ambani"

"So what? Reduce your expenses. Do you know that a penny saved is a penny earned"

"But if I do so, I can't lead the life of Mukesh Ambani"

"Oh I see, do you think there's a difference between his sleep and your sleep? He too walks on earth and you are also doing it. He is breathing air and so are you. So stay contended"

I understood just like how there are two sides to a coin, there are also two sides of looking at our earnings, either to earn more by not looking at your expenses or to earn something required and stay contended by taking care of your expenses. It brought altogether a new perspective for me.

Then comes one of my managers at work.

"Sir, I really need leave next week. How to make our delivery head approve my request"

"Ok do one thing. Take a new initiative, discuss about it and project on how it is going to help the customer, project and team. Once he becomes happy, then ask him leave. I am sure he will accept it"

I understood that management lies not only in managing a team but also in managing a manager or boss at work. I even felt beyond the project management and the program management, it is people management which is more vital.

Lastly, none other than my mentor in Toastmasters. 

"Samyuktha, I want to share my Kolkata Trip experience in the International Speech Contest. How is this draft?"

"It is good. But you need to have one single point in your speech around which the story has to rotate, not like a series of events"

"But how can I arrive at that point?"

"Ok, why did you go on the trip?"

"To experience new things and experiment with life "

"There you are, experimenting with life is your hook. Let's organise your speech to rotate around this point "

I understood that a speech is something beyond a story. Mastering the art of writing a speech with such tactics is the most important aspect that I learnt from my mentor. I could even figure out the slight difference that exists between writing a blog and a speech and even narrating a speech and a story and narrating a story in a speech.

Now, Starting from the essential life skills taught by my parents to the management skills taught by my manager to the speeches that I give in these Toastmasters meetings, the mentors in my life created a positive impact on who I am today. While I could give only one example of my mentoring journey with each one of them, I would say that I learned so many things from them in the respective areas. Hence, I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude towards each one of them through this forum by saying thank you. Don't you think that now it's your turn to thank your mentors? A penny for your thoughts.