on mentorship
Before starting our business, I had planned to be an educator as my career.
I graduated from my MFA program and emailed my undergrad program's department chair, letting him know I was available and eager to fill any role, from substitute teaching to a full-time position.
Me in my classroom, January 2015
He offered me a continuing education position and an adjunct senior portfolio course instructor role. This first course was indeed a fantastic experience. The students were motivated, fun, and energetic, and their work reflected their enthusiasm for the magic of photography.
Fast forward a few years, and I found myself in the same building with a classroom full of unmotivated students who needed more discipline, and their work reflected their poor attitudes. I was discouraged, and when I approached the department chair, they offered no support.
On my last day teaching there [and my last day in the classroom as the teacher to date], I left frustrated and sad that my dream of teaching full-time at my undergrad college was no longer what I wanted or what was best for me.
What I did know was that I wanted to be a mentor for those who cared, wanted to learn, and respected my experience in helping them better understand their own.
Today, I am writing from home. I have been working with Emily, my wife, for nearly nine years in building a business and managing a team.
It's been challenging yet gratifying. It's forced me to grow in directions I wasn't prepared for or wanted to. But here we are, and this is what we will be doing in the foreseeable future.
While I am still determining where our business will lead us, it's the first time in many years I've felt like I'm fulfilling my goal of being a mentor.
What I've learned is that mentors don't - nor should they - give you the answer. A good mentor offers their own life experience and education to inspire & reinforce whatever action you need to take next.
I was frustrated for several months with a problem we still haven't solved in our business. We worked with several mentors, who graciously gave us much of their time to listen and offer feedback/experience.
Emily and I with our Philadelphia team, February 2024
We were working to complete a puzzle, missing about 10% of the pieces. And these pieces were nowhere on the table or even in the same house.
That feeling is hard to deal with because the uncertainty about where we had to go to find those pieces was frustrating, overwhelming, and disorienting. While we are still looking for some of them, the pieces are turning up in places we travel to, conversations we are having, and the natural business cycle as time progresses.
To conclude, I hope that as a mentor, specifically in this team member's life, one day, they will look back and be grateful for their time working with us and the encouragement I offered to move on. Because, as I told them, life is too short to work a job you don't like, which is funny because I often say that I don't want my job. However, I'm learning that what I might offer the world through this business and my role in it is meant to be and will take me somewhere far beyond what I imagine and dream of today.
Similarly to my teaching career, it didn't end up like I thought it would, but my life is better because the universe had/has more extensive plans!