Lead Me to Fresh Water and I Will Drink

After reading book one of the Hunger Games, it’s evident that a good mentor can make the difference between life and death. The story is about a sort of battle royal that occurs each year for the enjoyment of a country. As children are chosen for these murder Olympics they are allowed mentoring from a past survivor, from their district, for the games. Unfortunately the protagonist’s mentor is a lousy drunk. That’s how life goes though, sometimes you’ll get a mentor that teaches you to “float like a butterfly and sting like a bee” and sometimes you’ll get a mentor who shows you everything not to be.

One of my favorite relationships between mentor and mentee is the one shared between Bob Bowman and Michael Phelps. Bowman has been sculpting Phelps into a world-champion gold medalist since he was 11 years old. Videos of training sessions I’ve seen with the two show Bowman being paternal, adversarial, and an inspirational friend to Phelps.  In a 2008 interview with ESPN Bowman said, “I like to keep the pressure up, when someone is that good you have to push them, not until they break just until they are giving you their best.”

Of course some leaders look to achieve a goal and lose sight of the mentees they are supposed to help reach that goal. In 1992 Hollywood gave us The Mighty Ducks. Hot shot lawyer Gordon Bombay is sentenced to community service in coaching one of the worst little league hockey teams ever. Bombay finally realizes he needs to earn the respect of the team and learns how to reach the kids on their own level. Bombay shows taking on a leadership role, like mentor, requires not only time but also dedication. The whole point is to teach your successor to one day be as good as, if not better than, you.

Seeing as we are all trying to grow up we no longer look for paternal mentors and those of us not involved in sports aren’t looking for someone to be adversarial about how we live our lives but what we are all looking for in a leader and mentor is inspiration. A breath of fresh air when our collegiate lives become stagnant. When the long hours put into physically challenging our bodies no longer seems to be paying off we need motivation. When all the hours spent studying and reading and writing have our brains the consistency of Play-Doh we need inspiration. When every good idea we have has been shot down and no one seems to be listening we need consolation. They say, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink,” but a great leader knows the path you lead the horse must leave it so thirsty it wouldn’t think twice about taking a drink of whatever is presented.