Let Me Introduce You To My Mentors

This is the collage that’s pinned over my desk.

They’re here, in my face, for three reasons.

The first is that there are specific characteristics they embody that I also want to have: they have a childlike sense of wonder, they’re oddballs, they posses a certain joy or calm, they’re prolific, they neither work nor live by the status quo, they have a relationship with pain that plays into their work, they’re anomalies, they make other’s lives better.

The second reason I have them up is because I wouldn’t want to disappoint them. I want to be worthy of their company — to be their peer. For two of them, that’s not possible (but I can imagine it) and to work with the other three would be a major accomplishment and I need to be prepared if I want to make it a reality.

And third reason is they remind me that I can live in a way that will inspire or be an example to others that they too can be childlike or weird or whatever makes them tick. We’re all examples for others of what’s possible. So we might as well set awesome examples.

With that, let’s make some introductions.

Casey Neistat

Casey had a kid at 17, moved to NYC with his baby and $800, made a viral video before YouTube even existed that forced Apple to change its policies and led to him filming an interview with Bill Clinton.

He went on to create daily vlogs for years while running a hugely successful advertising company and raising two kids, and is now a wildly successful, wildly inspirational public figure who sold his company to CNN for $25 million and created a startup to help other creators.

He’s a machine, he’s curious like a child, and he makes no excuses.

Yoda

I mean, I’m not the only nerd out there who takes life advice from the baddest green creature in the universe. Am I?

This one video alone conveys an immense amount of wisdom.

• Yoda: “Always with you what cannot be done.”
• Luke: “Moving stones around is one thing, but this is totally different.” Yoda: “No. No different. Only different in your mind.”
• Accepting perceived limitations (the size of the X Wing compared to Luke) as actual limitations (because Luke is small and the X Wing is big, he cannot lift it).
• Yoda: “You must unlearn what you have learned.”
• Yoda: “Try not. Do or do not. There is no ‘try’.”
• Yoda: “Luminous beings are we. Not this crude matter.” Giving yourself no value and not realizing your power.
• Luke: “I don’t believe it.” Yoda: “That is why you fail.”

Taika Waititi

Taika is the dream director I want to work with. He’s a Kiwi and I’ve enjoyed his movies ever since I lived in New Zealand back in 2008–2009.

His movies — even Thor: Ragnarok — always combine a mixture of “happy/sad”, the perspective of children, what it’s like to be and outsider, and comedy that makes a mountain out of a molehill.

Unlike Casey and Teddy, he has become successful despite himself.

Teddy Roosevelt

If I ever want to feel bad about myself, but then immediately inspired by what’s possible, I revisit perhaps my favorite biography, The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt.

“The Bull Moose” was the anomaly of anomalies.

He was born weak and asthmatic, so he bench pressed his chest into a barrel shape, expanding his ribs and giving him more room to breath. WTF?

He was an avid hunter but also established the National Parks System. He was governor of New York, the New York City Police Commissioner, a volunteer soldier and founder of the Rough Riders, a naval strategist, a rancher, he connected the Atlantic and Pacific via the Panama Canal, and he’s still the youngest president in US history. He did this all while writing 35 books and an estimated 150,000 letters.

He was everything he wasn’t supposed to be. He didn’t do what he was supposed to do. He did what he wanted and he found the time in the day to do it.

Bill Murray

Irreverent. A mystery. Childlike. Silly.

The stories about him abound.

From stealing people’s fries and telling them, “No one will ever believe you.”

To becoming a local celebrity in Bali one night.

To Matt Damon’s story about Bill going on a midnight jaunt to Prague.

There are so many quirky and fun things about him that most people would take themselves too seriously to even attempt.

He’s also very heartfelt and contemplative.

I think this quote sums up his best advice:

“The more relaxed you are, the better you are at everything: the better you are with your loved ones, the better you are with your enemies, the better you are at your job, the better you are with yourself.” — Bill Murray

Who Are Your Mentors?

Who has the characteristics you admire?

Who would you not want to disappoint?

Who’s peer group would you want to be a part of?

Who do you want to be so that other’s will be liberated to be themselves through watching you?

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This article is Day 13 of the 30-Day Fishbowl Series

You can start the series by clicking HERE.