What Mentorship Really Means | Book Club with Simon

I also talked about Ron Bruder. I thought I would share a story where I learned something else that's not in the book. So Ron. I met Ron and I got to write about him, and he became a very, very close friend. And he also became one of my mentors. He's a remarkable human being. And it was from Ron that I actually learned more about what mentorship really means. You know, I get emails from people that say, you know, will you be my mentor? And the answer is, no, I won't. For the same reason that if you sent me an email that just said, will you be my friend? Like, I don't even know you. Like, we can't do that. You can't go up to. We can't go up to strangers and say, will you be my friend? It's a little weird, right? And this is what I started to learn about mentorship. It's exactly the same as friendship. Friendship. I didn't ask Ron to be my mentor like a friend. It evolved. And what I learned is a mentor is someone who always has time for you. After I met Ron, I remember I wanted his advice on something, and I called him up, and this was before.

Start with why took off before there was a TED Talk. There was no start with why, because I was still interviewing Ron. And I remember calling him up and I wanted his advice. And he took my call. He's a very successful guy. And he took my call and he gave me earnest advice. And I remember some weeks later, I called him again, and he took my call again. He kept making time for me. Eventually, what happened is a friendship evolved. And I remember I was at his house once. This is well into our friendship, and I was getting ready to leave, and I put my arm around him as I was getting ready to say goodbye. And I said, you know, Ron, I love that you're my mentor. And he looked back and said something to me that I didn't expect. He said, and I love that you're mine now. This is when I realized that mentor relationships aren't mentor mentee. It's not like it's not just teacher student, but it's rather mentor, mentor that sometimes I didn't realize that though I was coming to him for advice, that he was learning from me too. Just like friendship, sometimes we're the givers in our friend in our friendships. Sometimes we're the receivers in our friendships.

It's this beautiful thing. So mentor relationships are not like champions. You have someone at your company who's your champion. You expect them to put your name forward for a promotion. Mentors don't get involved in your career. They're just there, and they believe in you. So thanks to Ron Bruder, I learned a lot more about what mentorship means, and it's really much more like a loving friendship.