Peyton Manning is the most badass mentor.

Or maybe not.

But I’d like to start with a short story that will hope to illustrate the value mentoring can provide after the break:

When I was still a teenager, a took a philosophy course that made me ponder the meaning of life. I wasn’t high that day, don’t worry, but my philosophy prof may have been. Just saying. I figured the best way to find out the answer was to consult those older than me. I thought that they would start listing material possessions, like flying unicorns. But instead they asked me questions like “are you high, what have you been smoking, and are you on crack?” I didn’t even know what crack was. But thanks to them and Charlie Sheen, I now do. Those that were insightful responded with answers like: to be happy, and to feel fulfilled.

WTH does that mean? Maybe these guys were on something.

Well, later, I read a motivation quote that went something like: “We are born into this world naked, leave the world naked, yet we spend the time in between chasing material goods.”  It made an impression on me.

I realized that we seek material goods to feel a certain way. Like when you buy an overpriced Apple device. When you open that piece of silicon, you just feel different. Not that type of silicon. You know what I mean.

If we live life competing on material possessions, we will always fall short, because the more we have the more we will just look around and compare with others and there will always be someone with more.

I’ve realized that the one true way to experience fulfillment (not drugs kids) is when you do something that positively impacts someone else in a significant way. Its the only way I’ve been able to feel this emotion and I’ve been fortunate to have experienced this through mentoring others.

Mentors help us discover who we are and guide us to uncover and achieve the things in life that make us come alive.

This inspirational quote which is the highest viewed post on Clever Motivation’s facebook page (if you haven’t liked that page, what are you waiting for?) describes very well what mentoring means to me:

Small minds discuss people, average minds discuss events, great minds discuss ideas.”

My mentors have always provided me with the best ideas for my career and personal life.

For that I congratulate all the amazing individuals who have been mentors to me. Mentoring is truly an exceptionally rewarding process.

Now go out and get a badass mentor. If it is someone of high status in your community, I suggest you cold call them and ask them straight up. It works. Just do some research first. And don’t ask them why they poach animals if they do.