• Home
  • /
  • Blog
  • /
  • Your Mentor May Live On a Different Planet

Your Mentor May Live On a Different Planet


As I say in this two-minute clip from a speech I gave at the Stanford Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders series, I never met my two most profound mentors: Southwest Airlines Founding CEO Herb Kelleher and management theorist Peter Drucker. But, I carried on a pen pal relationship with the former for ten years and tapped into the latter as I was writing my first book.

You have so many ways to connect with a potential mentor—social media messaging, watching speeches on YouTube, suggesting a 15-minute video call at whatever time of day best suits them. Don’t feel like you have to meet your mentor in person to get the full effect of a “mentor capitalist” in your life.

You might ask yourself why some wise individual would be open to offering you some of their sage advice? I’ll give you four reasons: 1) maybe they were the beneficiary of a mentor earlier in their life and now want to pay it back; 2) perhaps they relate to your personal story or ambition; 3) maybe you’re catching them at just the right time when some space has opened up in their life; or 4) perhaps you have something to offer them as well. Remember, mentorship is a two-way street.

Who could you reach out to create a mentor relationship even if you’ve never met them?

Discover More Wisdom

February 25, 2022

Be An ElderCherish knowing, Relish not knowingTake joy in finding, Muse at losingCelebrate remembering, ...

Hate the Idea of Being an Elder? Try this Poem.

November 2, 2020

I’ve had my own brush with “the other side.” At age 47, I went ...

Death Gave Me His Calling Card. Twice.
{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Choose Your Path to Midlife Mastery