VER-XIV-0056
“I asked the people I admire to mentor me and three of them said yes.”
You could have stayed where it was safe and self-taught, never risking the ask. Instead you reached up — to people clearly ahead of you — and let yourself be the smallest in the relationship. That's building with. The willingness to be taught by your betters is not weakness; it's the fastest way up there is.
Your Practice
- Come to each mentor with specific questions, not vague 'pick your brain' asks. Respect their time.
- Do something with every piece of advice before the next meeting. Action earns more access.
- Report back the wins their guidance produced. Mentors invest more in people who use it.
- Pass it down. The mentored who never mentor have only taken, not built with.
The Architects
“From that moment, I understood the pathway from slavery to freedom.”
— Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Chapter VI, 1845