Mentoring

My experience as the "modern elder" at Airbnb taught me that the generations have so much to learn from each other. Often, it’s the lived experience, EQ, and holistic thinking that can help a brilliant, young talent navigate the obstacle course of their early careers.

I was in ‘the valley’ of purpose paralysis. I had been soul searching for 721 days after leaving my big corporate career. I felt flatlined from soul searching and identity shedding, wondering what my next move should be. I thought the C-Suite was my promised land until my corporate ego finally bowed down, and I sent a cold-call email pitch to Chip to be an MEA ‘intern.’

Some time ago, I wrote a post called “Mentoring Stones” in which I outlined why the fine art of rock balancing had a lot in common with mentoring (thanks to Christine for introducing me to this art!). It’s all about presence and knowing when to take a step away and allow your stone or your mentee to stand up on their own after you’ve heard the “click.”

Following up Jeff Hamaoui’s post from yesterday: “Zach. Why are you going surfing? There are no waves… you’re being dumb,” my dad’s voice carried into the garage that early Saturday morning in March. As I strapped my surfboard to the car roof, I called down the garage stairs to him, “I just… have to.

I am writing this on Thanksgiving day. Thinking about gratitude and some of the people in my life. I wanted to share a particularly unexpected friendship I have developed over the last 7 years. Life has a curious origami to it. Ways of folding in on itself, finding unexpected edges and if you are lucky revealing an unprecedented shape.

Spoiler alert: This book isn’t really about how to live forever. This is the Foreword I wrote for the paperback edition of Marc Freedman’s fabulous book that originally launched two years ago (paperback coming out in December).

As schools struggle with the decision to reopen amidst a global pandemic - kids are displaced and parents are anxious - boomers across the country are joining forces to ensure the future generation is not left behind.

The words “encore” and “mentor” sound alike. I was 52 years old in early 2013 and had no idea what was next for me. In the movie “The Intern,” Robert DeNiro says, “Musicians don’t retire. They quit when there’s no more music inside of them.” I know I still had music to share, but I wasn’t sure with whom to share it.

Nearly 40% of us have a younger boss. If you’re 55 years old, it’s 70% likely your boss is your junior chronologically. By the year 2025, it’s estimated that the majority of Americans will have a boss that is younger than them.

An MEA alum was trying to apply my two types of mentorship theory to a young, high-po (“potential”) leader, but was frustrated. The alum said to me, “Can you really teach emotional intelligence to someone who doesn’t care about EQ?”