Mental breakdown’s and mentorship

As I spoke about in my last post, I’m incredibly privileged in the sense that I am lucky enough to receive mentorship directly from the top professionals in the world in my profession.

I’ve been pushing myself incredibly hard lately, pulling 14-hour workdays, not really leaving myself room to breathe. I started the day today with a mental breakdown at 11 am, promptly cancelled some social obligations out of anxiety and then met with my primary mentor around 1 pm. I’m always extremely grateful to see him, because not only can he console any worries that I have, he embodies all I pursue.

For example, I would like to one day be humble in the face of success, I want to push away compliments and embrace criticism wherever I can. Although this isn’t really how I currently operate, I definitely embrace criticism in some forms, yet in other forms, I simply ignore, avoid or deliberately deflect it.

My mentor, who has a large social media following while also being successful in a more practical sense in our field, still manages to remain humble at every turn. I have seen people time and time again figuratively toot his horn incredibly loudly, yet he seems to see past this flattery.

I guess what I’m trying to get at is, it truly amazes me how he has attained this level of mastery in his work and life. During our meeting today he spent some time telling me about the stories of his past failures after I cried in front of him just five minutes prior.

I’ve recently been studying the science of mentorship, there are a few key factors that are linked to being a good mentor. High emotional intelligence — therefore high empathy. Mentorships should primarily also begin informally, for example, companies that mandate mentorship programs likely don’t produce as robust of effective mentorship as 1–1 informal mentorship. Lastly, mentorships should concern themselves with personal matters, this leads to more effective mentorships.

What struck me today is the fact that my mentor has taken on a role of mentorship for not just me, but also for multiple other students, and he has absolutely mastered that craft as well.

I hope to be like him someday.