It’s getting to the point here in NYC where there are days in which one might start to miss the temperate Santa Monica breeze as he/she attempts to seek refuge from one air conditioned environment to the next without being left sticky. It luckily hasn’t quite sustained those high temperatures yet, but we certainly had a day or two this last week reminding us of what’s in store.
Summer is in full bloom and with it the verve and excitement of long, hot summery days. I’ve nearly completed my first full year in NYC and am reminded of the season I first entered. I can now say that I’ve experienced all the seasons–not just the constantly sunny, mild fluctuation of So Cal’s cold-ish, nice, and hot. (Although this last winter was mild, evidently so I should probably still invest in a pair of snow boots…)
Having been through a hot, sticky summer before, I’m far more prepared in how to adapt and to accept the reality that is NYC seasonality. I know I need to install a wall-mounted A/C unit ASAP, that I need to check the weather daily for rain, and central heating creates odd pipe noise. I think I knew that before I came to NYC–a lot of it common sense. But until I experienced it, all I could do was prepare for what to do. Now I understand. I “grok.”
Experience and knowledge are interesting pieces to the puzzle of life. You can sit inside reading and acquiring all this knowledge, but unless you do–unless you act on that knowledge–there’s only so much to be accomplished in the mental realm.
“For it was not so much that by means of words I came to a complete understanding of things, as that from things I somehow had an experience which enabled me to follow the meaning of words.” -Plutarch
And yet there’s only so much one person can experience on his/her own in a lifetime. It’s with sharing experiences with one another that we grow beyond our individual capacity.
Experience is a piece of art you’ve created through the energy and time of your life.
It’s up to you whether you lock it in a basement or share it. You can share it with a few, or all who are willing to listen. You can share it freely or at some cost. The goal is that in sharing your experience, it will in some manner be repaid to you–be it economically, intrinsically, or some other form.
Society is the amalgamation of individuals’ experiences manifested in a seemingly sustainable, albeit dynamic, fashion.
When you get up and go in the morning, did you create the light-bulb that illuminated the early morning? Or the water system that provided you with a shower? Or the cotton that was weaved into thread to make your shirt? I’m going to go with “No”.
We all rely on the experience of others that has been shared–often times in the realm of free markets and capitalism. And money–ideologically–serves as the balancing act for the value you’ve created for others versus taken for yourself.
But outside of the free market, there’s a social mechanism that is used to share experiences, and that mechanism is mentoring.
You share with someone your experiences, your thoughts and insights with nothing stipulated in return. It may manifest a return through economic or intrinsic means later on, but the initial exchange often is done altruistically without expectation of some type of reciprocity from the other party.
Paying it forward is a concept and practice that is often used in the land of entrepreneurship. And in this land, there’s a level of prestige for a “unicorn startup” — a company valued over a billion dollars. Something so rare and precious that it’s this mystical entity entrepreneurs endlessly seek to create. Very few do.
But in your pursuits–whatever they may be–I encourage you to seek another type of unicorn–a unicorn mentor. These are individuals who continuously share their experience, time, and energies with you to help you become the best version of yourself. They point out the dangerous waters ahead, they share their hard life lessons, open doors for your career, and hold you accountable to yourself–all in a way that only the experience of once being in your similar situation can.
They’re hard to find but easy to identify.
When you’ve found one, cherish it, appreciate it, and know that their experience is to you, now knowledge. It’s up to you to use it and act upon it; to once again turn knowledge into experience. And if you don’t, these unicorn mentors ride off into the sunset, and their experience with you lost in oblivion in the mental world.
If you do have one, you may just want to send them a token of appreciation today–for that ultimately is the currency that drives the world of these unicorn mentors.
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