Who is your Mentor? January 21, 2007
Posted by omair in : Uncategorized , trackbackIn life I have come across many cross roads, directions, goals, aspirations, visions, etc.
Regardless of what path I am following, whether I was looking to enhance my Islamic knowledge, obtain my bachelors degree, find a job, excel in my career, I came to a realization yesterday - Success in any path in life requires some form of guidance from a mentor.
When I read through some biographies of modern success stories, they all referred to their mentors. Donald Trump, Michael Dell, Bill Gates, Herb Keller, Jack Welch –> All referred to mentors they could turn to, ask for guidance whenever they came across situations they hadn’t experienced before.
Even in the Islamic history, the Sahaba had the greatest of all mentors, the Prophet SAW. In turn our Sahaba themselves became great mentors.
So who is my mentor? I can think of a few for specific cases, but I feel there is one key defficiency in the mentors I have identified in my life. That is I like them too much. I have developed too close of a personal relationship.
My mentor needs to be able to tell me I am being stupid when I am - They need to be able to tell me ‘Omair quit the B.S. the reality is….’ No sugar coating, no worry of my feelings when the truth needs to be told. In the end, they aren’t needed to give me the answers, rather I need them to guide me so I can decide on the answers. Straight to the point.
So I ask myself - Who is my mentor?
Comments»
So this *is* interesting. But you do need to cut the BS :)
The reality is, for one thing, you need to delete the default blog entry that came from wordpress together with the default comment that comes with it. Second you need to fill in the About page or at least put some meaningful blank in it.
As to mentors, I think these are very interesting reflections. I’d like to pose a few questions if I may to further develop these ideas. From an abstract perspective, why would you argue that a mentor needs to be blunt? What function or role does that serve that could not be served by what you call the “sugar coating”? From a more concrete perspective, you’ve mentioned several examples of mentor/mentee relationships. Did most of them have that aspect of “cut the BS . . .”?
So who is YOUR mentor? :D