The MBA Mentor - Stop being so jealous

A guy is sitting in an internet café. Typing away at furious speeds he is looking for information about something. Something very important to him.  And then he spots a blog. A blog of some arbit fellow.  But this arbit fellow is of some importance. Important because this arbit fellow of ours is a from one college. This college of his is a Well Known Management in West India. One of the colleges to which our patron aspires to get into. If not the WIMWI, then the one in south India, else the one in east India. Of course he has special meaning to the alphabets. Yes, you and I have also read these alphabets but our patron and this arbit fellow have created new notions for these alphabets. ABC. Man these must mean something apart from apple, ball and cat right. Well so what if they are the starting alphabets to some colleges locations. Ahmadabad. Bangalore. Calcutta (aka Kolkata). Or as the arbit fellow will correct us with more clear addresses. Vastrapur. Banerghetta Rd. Jokha. How does it matter in our story? Of course it does. Did you not notice all the smiles and emotions overplaying on the face of our young aspirant when he came across this blog. Lets focus our attention on the patron. He seems to be searching furiously all over the blog for something. Ah he has found it. Seems like it’s only a home address.

What we need to realize is that every patron like ours will always need one thread to show some present common link. Then he plans to cling on to that tiny link. This is what he will start with and then go on to form one bonding between the patron and the arbit fellow. This is where our patron brings in the email where he plans to form the link. This email is one of the most important ones in his life according to him, so he will go over and over the whole mail. Not too short, not too long, not too boring, not too vague, not too descriptive. God its difficult to write this mail. Once this is done the whole process kicks in and we know the rest.
But let’s follow the patron for a few more days. He goes  on and laps up every word that the arbit fellow says. From gyan on classes to preparation on the d-day. Laps it up with such care as if its nectar falling straight from heaven. And this does not stop here. The adulation for each and every word coming out of his mouth feels the same everytime. To the extent that the arbit fellow goes on to become a personal shrink to our patron. And so the journey starts. Now the patron goes and pings his mentor every time he wants advice, assurance etc. I don’t say its bad but cmon man give the man a break. He is just a normal human being albeit with a slightly better luck/brain/perseverance. And just because he is here in one of the IIMs u start thinking he IS the nxt steve jobs/laxmi mitta etc. So is it wrong to be the patron. Is it good for the mentor to continue in that sense. Well lets see it from the mentors perspective.

Forget the fact that a year ago he was also in the patrons shoes and he was looking for mentors, and he prolly did find a few. So now its his turn to earn some of the mentees, some of the adulations, some junie who will look upto him like GOD. Well obviously who wouldn’t like that? But should the mentor not be a little careful. Maybe it is time the mentor does not feed on this attention but rather let the mentee develop himself according to his choices. Is it not the ultimate dream of any mentor to see his mentees go on and progress beyond him. Well I bet that any of us who have mentored someone or the other at any point of time have felt a pang of jealousy when the “आज का छोकरा ” who had just come into the college goes on to become a big shot while I am still in the same old job.

Stop being so jealous. There will always be someone who is smarter than you. Someone who prolly deserves to earn all that adulation. Stop being so jealous. Its time you accept that you have earned what you deserve, its time to let him earn what he deserves.

All the best to all the mentees. And you mentors cmon show them that the old horse can still gallop. Go on do something productive now.