A teacher and a student were out for a walk.
Student saw a fox chasing a rabbit.
Teacher said, “The rabbit will get away from the fox.”
“I don’t think so,” the student replied.
The teacher said, “The fox may be faster, but the rabbit will elude the fox.”
Student asked, “Why?”
Teacher said, “Fox is running for his lunch, but the rabbit is running for his life.”
So the hidden question is what is the motive behind their run?
The conclusion is that the motive behind the run always wins, if it is with purpose, sometimes winning may not appear immediately but eventually it will.
Then, my question is why do we all run everyday?
For most of us, we have to go through the day.
Majority of us make our day as our immediate goal, but it doesn’t hinder us to run for the real purpose of our life.
Very few of us who really introspect understand or try to understand the real purpose of life, every one of us should have some kind of hidden purpose for our life.
Daniel Pink, author of influential book ‘Drive‘ says “Purpose is a core drive.” Pink’s TedTalk ‘The puzzle of motivation‘ is the culmination of human intrinsic motivation.
We can’t make our day only for lunch or dinner even though lunch and dinner are equally important for our survival.
“Powerful runners have both a desire to run as well as the will power, and the will power beats the running desire which is the intrinsic motivation.”
Abraham Lincoln had a sole purpose of his life: to preserve the union and freed the slaves.
Franklin Roosevelt nurtured the sole purpose of his life: freed the people out of a great depression and helped them win a world war.
BP Koirala grew the sole purpose of his life: fight for humanism and social justice.
Nelson Mandela served 27 years in prison but never stopped working on his purpose: democracy and social justice.
What do we learn from these great minds? If we only chase for everyday lunch or dinner, we will never taste real life purpose.
Extraordinary achievement and legacy is directly determined by not how fast we run in the race, but by knowing the goal behind our run.
Powerful runners aren’t produced in gyms, they are produced from something they have deep inside them: a strong desire to run.
They have both a desire to run as well as the will power, and the will power beats the running desire which is the intrinsic motivation.
For all of us, this illustrates the difference between running for life and running for a day.
“The key is mentors help to convert our interest into passion and create value out of it.”
If we’re running to lose weight for external reasons like to look slim for a birthday, then we might reach our goal but the problem is we may gain weight back as soon as our birthday party ends.
If we’re running for life, we want to lose weight to become healthy and happy forever.
If we’re running for life, the kicker is make a slow and steady progress at first and achieve sustainable results in the long term.
When we see a medical doctor, we see at least ten year’s knowledge accumulation related to medicines. That medical expertise they develop over time is by running consistently for at least 10 years.
It’s a running for life, it’s a motive for a gradual accumulation of knowledge to serve for a longer period of time.
One of the best ways to make the decision to run for life is by following or choosing a suitable mentor.
Mentor is not simply our casual advisor, he or she is more than that.
Mentor is somebody who has already walked the road we are willing to walk and he or she sees us as his or her past self.
Bob Goshen, speaker and author of ‘The Power of Layered Leadership‘ highlights that mentors help us to run our life course easily on track if we become able to choose the correct one.
We don’t know our ultimate ceiling for our progress and prosperity, so mentors teach us not to worry about it, they remind us it would just be a waste of time.
Rather than try to know the ceiling of success, mentor helps us to focus on one thing at a time.
When Sabeer Bhatia first entered USA, he had only $250 in his pocket, but he was running for a dream in his life.
He created Hotmail, later Microsoft giant bought Hotmail for $400 million.
Sabeer Bhatia was running for his one thing in his life because he had Farouk Arjani on his back, the mentor.
Mentors are very special people if we go deep and try to understand their roles.
Our interests and passion are two different things, most of the time we mix them up together without going in depth.
The key is mentors help to convert our interest into passion and create value out of it.
Nobody offered a job for Walt Disney, pioneer of the animation industry, later his brother Roy appeared to be his mentor and gave him work at an art studio and help him transform his life.
Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, had no money for any business, his father-in-law appeared as his mentor and gave him $20,000 to start a retail business. Sam Walton, as an author of ‘Made In America‘ tells the world “Success has always had its price and I learned that lesson the hard way.”
“If you try to please everybody around you, the guaranteed thing is that the one person that you won’t please is yourself.”
Albert Einstein had Max Talmud, he not only taught Einstein math, science, and philosophy but also ate lunch and dinner with Einstein family for many years.
Mentoring forced him to implement new thinking, new skills, and new relationships. Without a mentor these tasks mostly remain unnoticed in the beginning but mentors force to see them as natural talents even though they seem unnatural.
It’s very hard to act naturally on those hidden skills by anyone but mentors can see them as budding talents.
One limitation of life is nobody can run alone, everybody’s gasoline has fixed time but each successful runner has somebody behind to refuel.
Somebody standby in the gas station to refill.
It’s the truth, that somebody is your authentic mentor.
Even Oprah Winfrey, media personality and philanthropist, had Jeffrey D Jacobs as a mentor.
John Lennon of the Beatles had George Martin as a mentor.
One thing mentors remind you is that your most important appointment each day is with yourself, and you shouldn’t miss it.
Your appointment with your mission and with your purpose.
One secret thing that mentors teach you is that you can’t please everyone around you, there is no way for this, and you shouldn’t try it.
If you try to please everybody around you, the guaranteed thing is that the one person that you won’t please is yourself.
Our time is finite so we must keep pleasing ourself first.
Mentors are incredible people to reassure us that we aren’t missing these appointments everyday to please ourself.
“Our job is to study successful mentors and build our actions on the back of their studies, their books, their successes, and their failures.”
John C. Maxwell, the author of ‘The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership‘ states that mentors will help us to find the right direction and the right action in life.
The real mentors will also help us to keep our relationships with friends, family, and colleagues in perspective and our daily actions on track.
What we shouldn’t forget is that they have already walked down the same road we’re walking or planning to walk.
We can research, model, benchmark, and trend mentor’s experience for our success.
The research and experience of mentors opens the best path to start our own life.
Most of the time we hear people saying that you are very smart but we rarely hear them saying that there were many smart people before you so you study them.
These people who accomplished something before you, who walked the difficult path before you, would be the best mentors for new generations.
Many mentors are still living but some of them are gone from the world but still they can guide us through their legacies, works, books, and publications.
Our job is to study successful mentors and build our actions on the back of their studies, their books, their successes, and their failures.
Conclusion
Finding a mentor is equally hard work but doable. Of course, it takes time but if we are serious about our life, it’s necessary.
Generally we think life is about finding ourself but mentors help us to create ourself. Watch Chris Roberts‘s insightful TedTalk ‘The Secret to Becoming Yourself‘ about mentor’s role in the journey of self-discovery.
And one more thing, never confuse with this: mentors are not advisors or consultants.
They are not. Period.
Advisors and consultants charge money but mentors work free for you, but their value is priceless.
When you have a mentor on your side, one plus one almost always equals something greater, it may be sometimes eleven, not just two.
It’s never too soon or too late to have a mentor in our lives, it works all the time.
We just have to commit to achieve excellence.
Having a great mentor gives us the best chance possible to succeed.
Remember Oprah Winfrey, an iconic American media executive and philanthropist, “Always associate yourself only with great mentors who are going to lift you higher no matter what.”
But just keep in mind, finding the right mentor certainly takes time, if you don’t have anybody right now.
It needs little extra effort, just keep working for that.
I wish you all the best.
Yam Timsina, PhD, writes primarily on health basics, scientific progress, social upliftment, and value creation.
Disclaimer: “Please note that some links in this post are affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you make a purchase through them, at no extra cost to you.”
