The Alchemy of Mentorship
A long apprenticeship is the most logical way to success. The only alternative is overnight stardom, but I can’t give you a formula for that. -Chet Atkins
Hello everyone, it’s me again. Today I would be writing on an art that is fading away slowly especially in our dev circles and that is the apprentice — mentor relationship.
Understand: all through histories, they have seldom been a true and thorough bred master who did not bask in the solace and refining fire of a healthy apprentice — mentor relationship. From Aristotle — Alexander the Great, Michael Faraday — Humphry Davy, Frank Lloyd Wright — Louis Sullivan, Plato — Aristotle, Thomas Edison — Henry Ford and the list could go on.
If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants. — Isaac Newton
So this is a clarion call to all those who wants to be master in their various fields; you can’t do it alone, you can’t even read about it on your own or watch YouTube videos to mastery(no sir, if that was possible, we would all be masters by now don’t you think?). I am not antagonizing the role reading(I am a big fan)and self study plays in learning and growing and becoming your best but here is the thing; Life is short; you have only so much time and so much energy to expend. You could decide to learn everything you want to know through books but the process could be tedious and filled with developing bad habits and practices that would need to be unlearned going forward.
Understand: mentors do not give you a shortcut, but they streamline the process(from Mastery by Robert Greene). Having a mentor would give you a more richer, fuller and robust handle on your said subject be it Software development or any other field for that matter.
So in this time of great competitiveness, it is essential we embrace the dynamics of the mentor-protege relationship. Also a quick note: It’s important to learn from a mentor, internalizing his/her modus operandi and thought patterns, you should soak them in like a sponge but however, you shouldn’t be an imitation of them; you should use what you’ve learned and become a better version of YOURSELF for that my friends was the idea all along.
