I’m a proponent of paying it forward.
Throughout my professional life, I have been fortunate to receive invaluable advice, support, and encouragement from mentors at critical times. Most importantly, when I hesitantly approached someone I deeply respected and asked them whether something I was planning—often, something I had never done before, or something no one had ever done before—was a good idea.
To my surprise, my mentors invariably reacted with great enthusiasm and encouragement. “That sounds like a wonderful idea—you should do it!” they would say, often offering suggestions and valuable advice.
I felt so supported.
Without their encouragement, I would have felt uneasy about pursuing my risky new plans. I might even have given up.
Thanks to my mentors, I:
- Set my professional fees at the right level when I began consulting in 1982.
- Forged ahead and wrote what eventually became a series of three books on conference design.
- Found the courage to share my weekly musings on a wide variety of topics publicly via my blog.
- Consequently became a valued resource on meeting design and facilitation for thousands of people and organizations.
Mentorship and the mentee
Mentorship is often depicted as a formal process with a mentor regularly meeting with a mentee. However, I have a more flexible definition. Powerful mentorship can happen in a single short session, sharing insights and encouragement at a critical moment that supports the mentee’s life—sometimes in ways the mentor may never know, and that the mentee may only recognize years later.
Mentors also benefit from working with mentees. I feel good when I’m seen as a mentor and appreciated for my guidance and advice. And I often learn from mentees too!
As a result, I have been paying it forward as a mentor of various kinds for some time now, giving back what was so generously offered to me when I needed it.
How I pay it forward
Professionally, I offer free guest appearances during meeting industry college programs, allowing students to experience participant-driven and participation-rich session formats. I answer questions about the industry and encourage students to continue to work out what they truly love to do, supporting them along the way.
Given my years of independent consulting and running a business, decades of serving on nonprofit boards, and a deep background in technology, people come to me for advice on their lives, careers, and top-of-the-mind problems. Online communities of practice are great places to connect with people with unmet wants and needs.
I try to help these people to the best of my ability. I love this work. Just like my mentors did.
Paying it forward is at the heart of community. It is one of the keys to facilitating connection, my ikigai.
If you haven’t already, I encourage you to adopt the practice of paying it forward in your life. I think you will find, as I have, that it pays rich dividends.
Image attribution: Eli Christman under a CC BY 2.0 license