“Mentors Around Me”

Fellow Toastmasters and guests, who among you have had at least one mentor in your life? (Can I have a show of hands, please?) I’m glad to see that most of you have experienced having a mentor, whether formal or informal. I invite you to reflect for a moment your personal encounter with your mentor and how that person had helped you become who you are now as I walk you through how these special people had made a profound impact in my life.

I am fortunate to be surrounded by mentors in various stages of my life. It is true, what they say, that when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

So, let us explore further what a mentor is. A mentor is an individual, usually more mature and more experienced, who helps and guides another individual’s development. This guidance is not done for personal gain.

We trace back the use of the term “Mentor” from Greek mythology. The story of Mentor comes from Homer's Odyssey. When King Odysseus of Ithaca went to fight the Trojan War, he entrusted the care of his household to Mentor, who served as teacher and overseer of Odysseus's son, Telemachus.

After the war, Odysseus was condemned to wander for ten years in his attempt to return home. Telemachus, now grown, went in search of his father accompanied by Athena, Goddess of Wisdom and War and patroness of the arts and industry, who assumed the form of Mentor.

Eventually, father and son were reunited and together they cast down would-be usurpers of Odysseus's throne and of Telemachus's birthright. In time, the word Mentor became synonymous with trusted advisor, friend, and teacher.

Who are my mentors and how have I benefited from the mentoring relationship?

o My mentors in the family

I consider my dad to be my 1st mentor. It was from him that I got my spirit of adventure and the passion for continuous learning. He was very hardworking and he likes exploring things. He wasn’t able to finish high school because he had to stop and help his dad run the family business. But he would buy tons of textbooks on various topics – science, health, medicine, dictionaries, and even books on learning various Filipino dialects. His thirst for knowledge was insatiable.

Papa was creative and resourceful. He took vocational courses on woodworking and electronics repair. He did the carpentry work for the wall shelves in my room and in our study area. Whenever a radio or electric fan would bog down, he would bring out his good, ol’ reliable toolkit and start the repair. And soon enough, the appliance would be up and running. Perhaps it was for this reason that I am more comfortable in handling pliers and screwdrivers than learning how to use lipsticks and blush-ons.

Papa was generous. He was a man for others. He would offer to drive his association friends home, even if they were out of the way. He was thoughtful. He would bring delight to us kids whenever he takes home Jollibee hamburgers and fries and keep our minds momentarily away from our homework.

Papa plans for the future. He would buy supplies by the bulk, like a dozen of ballpens or notebooks. For one, in order to avail of the wholesale discount, and the other is to have enough for the “rainy” days. He had this habit of using pentelpen to mark the price of items bought in a non-conspicuous surface of the item. He uses code letters in place of the numbers. This info comes in handy whenever he had to compare prices of an old item with an upcoming purchase to know whether it was a good deal or not. It also helps him identify the useful life of the product. Pretty smart, huh? He had passed away some 10 years ago but up to now, we still get to enjoy and utilize the items he bought. Proof of the legacy he had left behind.

My 2nd mentor was my mom. She taught us siblings the value of frugality and saving. She would constantly remind us to finish all food in the plate, turn off the lights when not in use to, recycle the plastic bag containers of groceries for future use or as trash bags. She’d say that a peso saved is a peso earned. She manages the finances in our household. She encourages us to set aside our extra money in time deposit or other financial instruments. I was able to appreciate the value of setting aside my monthly savings for contingency when I stopped working for almost a year.

o My MBA mentor

Mr. K. My former colleague turned boss. He was also a fellow E.C.E. grad. Since I first met him in late 1999, he was already very driven to make a mark in his profession. He pursued his graduate studies part-time in the evenings and weekends while working daytime as a call center tech support agent and he has moved up the ranks till he became an account manager. Because of his commitment to enhance his skills and knowledge even if he had to do it with his own resources, I was inspired to follow his path to take up MBA in order to gain business management insights. I would consult him almost every term, asking him who would be the best professor to take for this particular subject in order to maximize the learnings and he would gladly give his recommendations. He eventually became my boss and I also came to meet his future wife Ms. G. They have been there to guide me till I graduated. Not surprisingly, my relationship with the couple had blossomed that I became godmother to their son.

o My professional mentor

Ms. E. She is a senior operations director of the call center where I came from, the boss of my boss Mr. K. I was an account supervisor for 3 years but I felt that dealing with day-to-day operations wasn’t my thing. I’m much more interested in doing things that involve variety, people coordination and of putting structure into a non-structure…in short, projects. Ms. E gave me the opportunity to explore project management when she appointed me to lead the roll out of an adhoc HR initiative that involved process improvement work and change management. It was actually extra work with no extra pay but I accepted the challenge. She assigned someone to mentor me and was also there at the background to oversee the progress. She gave me the flexibility to be creative in proposing my own ideas. I recall coming to her with a bunch of questions in mind, expecting her to feed me with answers, but she would throw this question back to me saying, “What do you think?” And I would be forced to think and find a solution. Because of this valuable learning experience, I had the courage to leave my stable 8-year call center job and venture out into another industry involving project management. Today, I still consult her for career and professional advise because of her wealth of experience and success in her profession.

o My personal life success mentor

Tita V. She is the managing director of a seminar company where I’ve been involved in during my period of unemployment and soul-searching, so to speak. Being a down-to-earth, nurturing woman, she encouraged me to not to just settle for anything and to take the time to find what I love doing. She believes in my talent in designing stuff and putting things together, thus, she supported me in my mini-venture to design and sell T-shirts and caps with embroidered logos, and marble paperweight engravings by ordering from me even despite no assurance that the items would be sold. Now that I’ve declared of getting involved in training and development work, she encouraged me to immerse in training facilitation engagements to earn the experience and the money will come in later.

o Lastly, my Toastmaster mentors

Ms. I. How did it happen? It started when I decided to attend the meeting of El Presidente in April 17 last year, upon the referral of a friend who was the sister of Ms. A. I still remember the date because I kept the program. That night however, Ms. A wasn’t available so she endorsed me to Ida. I brought a friend along with me and when we arrived at Max’s, I saw a room full of strangers dressed in their professional attires. The table was U-shaped so there was no place to hide. But Ms. I, she welcomed me and my friend and ushered us to our seats. She was very accommodating and asked how we were after the meeting. She would text me persistently to invite me to attend the upcoming meetings. I was interested to join but didn’t have the funds yet at that time. I missed 2 meetings then signed up as a member in May where she assigned Tita L. to be my BSP1 mentor. Ms. I had this gift of making feel people special and appreciated. During the last meeting of her term in June, she gave out certificates of appreciation. I don’t know how she qualified the recipients, but I received one anyway even if I was just one-month old with the club, together with a personalized canvass bag. It was so effective so much so that when I received a call from her to join her in an officers’ meeting, I went ahead without an inkling of what will happen. She asked me to be the secretary and I accepted the challenge despite much apprehensions and not being ready. You see, I actually put to heart the statement in the Toastmaster’s Promise “To serve my club as an officer when called upon to do so.” That was the magic of Ms. I.

Then there was Ms. A, Tita L., Ms. N, and R. They mentored me in my speech projects. They were their to give me a pat in the back and give me their honest, caring feedback on the areas I could improve on. Ms. N and R would invite me to club hops in order to experience how other clubs conduct their meetings so that we could bring in new ideas to the club. There was a point that our club faced certain challenges but our dedicated club president and VP-Ed persisted and courageously weathered the challenge. I admire their resilience to cope with last minute changes and handle multiple meeting roles just to get the program rolling. I also have my hats off to the former presidents, Ms. A and Tita L., for serving as pillars of the clubs because they love the club and Toastmasters.

So what do all my mentors have in common? They are: S – Selfless, L – Leaders in their own crafts, I – Inspires people, D – Desire to Impart Knowledge, B – Believes in my capabilities. Mentors, through their deeds and work, help us to move toward fulfilling our potential. Their presence uplifts. They are like the stars in the night sky, shining our path, helping us reach our goals even if they are not physically around.

I am truly blessed to have mentors around me and I would like acknowledge some of them who are here. And the best way I can think of to pay back is to pay it forward. By mentoring someone else.

My dear Toastmasters and friends, who have mentored you today? And how can you be a mentor to someone else? Good evening.

(Taken from my BSP10 - Delivered May 28, 2009)