The Power of Creativity \(Book 1\): Learning How to Build Lasting Habits, Face Your Fears and Change Your Life pdfdrive com

Distinguish Between Good and Great Mentors
I  spent  my  twenties  trying  and  failing  to  earn  a  living  as  a  successful  Irish
journalist. I would have given almost anything for a more experienced journalist
to take an interest in the course of my career and show me what to do and what
to avoid.
I was prepared to strike a Faustian pact, if you will.
Several  of  my  classmates  from  journalism  college  worked  with  editors  and
more experienced colleagues who took an interest in their careers, but I always
found it difficult to settle in a newspaper or radio station.
I grew resentful and was happy to tell people outside of the profession that
most journalists were unhelpful.
I’d  failed  to  see  the  big  problem  behind  my  petty  resentments.  During  a
career,  people  have  many  kinds  of  mentors.  There  are  good  mentors  and  great
mentors; the former is easy to acquire while the latter is an elusive prize.
Good mentors are the teachers and instructors in your local creative writing,
music  or  film  class.  They  are  respected  colleagues  in  the  workplace  or  even
some of your friends.
Even  more  importantly,  they  can  help  you  advance  your  creative  career
faster, even if you work with or follow that mentor for just a little while.
The  good  news  is  it’s  relatively  easy  to  find  a  good  mentor.  A  more
experienced colleague that you can trust can serve this role for a time (although
you  might  not  want  to  label  the  relationship)  or  you  can  hire  a  teacher  or
instructor to work directly with you.
Great  mentors  are  fewer  and  farther  between  and  harder  to  find.  They  are

---

creative masters whose work keeps you up at night because it’s so damn good.
So how can you find a great mentor?
If that person is still living and working, figure out how you could be useful
to  them.  Try  to  look  at  the  world  through  the  gaze  of  your  mentor,  asking
yourself, “What does he or she need most?”
Transform yourself into someone with skills that complement their work.
Yes, this means you’re going to have to work for free. I know giving away
your time for nothing is troubling, but I’d like to reframe what you’re doing as a
trade: Your time for access to their expertise.
Great mentors almost always complain about a lack of free time. One great
way to hook their attention is to do something that gives your would-be mentor
more hours to spend. If you’re a writer, for example, you could offer to write an
article or a blog post for their website.
You can also work with great mentors as part of a group.
Let’s say you are a musician.
You and several of your peers could sign up for a workshop or retreat with a
talented  musician  during  which  your  mentor  provides  you  and  the  rest  of  the
group critical feedback over a couple of days.
You can also short-circuit this process if you’re prepared to either pay a great
mentor  for  one-on-one  feedback  or  if  you  shift  your  definition  of  the
student/mentor relationship.