I was a bad mentor

I was a pretty bad mentor for the early part of my career.

Many things drove my team crazy (my arrogance, lack of empathy, and stubbornness, to name a few), but the biggest was refusing to help when they were stuck on a technical problem.

My approach was to have them wrestle with the situation until they figured it out. So, even if it could be a three-minute fix with some help, I would sit back and watch it turn into a three-day saga.

It sounds pretty stupid from a business and productivity perspective, but I sincerely believe that you can’t learn from other people’s mistakes. You gotta make your own. If you really fight with the problem and spend time on it -

• You’ll inevitably browse through ten wrong solutions first. Subconsciously, you’ll pick up bits and pieces that would be valuable some other day.
• You will remember that forever and also learn to apply it to other scenarios. If someone else gives you a fix, you will more than likely make the same mistake again—not today, not tomorrow, but oh, you will.

I have changed a lot since then (well, that’s what some would say), but my approach to learning hasn’t. Unfortunately, it still bothers people (especially the younger crowd) as much as it did my first team.

I hope some of my earlier team members found it valuable later in their lives.

One can wish!