On mentors you never meet
The famous investor, the late Charlie Munger, wrote in depth about developing his 'latticework of mental models'. Finding mentors was part of this, and he made the point that you don't have to meet a mentor for them to have a profound impact on your life.
I recently did a session about writing with some young people who were just about to finish school. They go to a school in Rome, a Liceo Artistico, so as well as studying general subjects such as English, they also study subjects such as Architecture, Graphic Design and Theatre Set Design in depth. I think this is amazing.
One of the questions they asked was about how to make progress as artists and in their careers. Here is what some successful people whose writing I like, say about this.
The late Charlie Munger talks about the importance of mentors. A person whose ideas Munger often talks about is Benjamin Franklin. He makes the point that you can find mentorship both from people who are alive, or who lived in the past. This reminds me of Stephen King’s thought that writing is a form of telepathy. Isn’t it amazing, you can open a book by say, Marcus Aurelius, and see what he was thinking 1800 years ago.
Brian Eno suggests becoming a ‘scenius’. Rather than spending too much time in your garret, find collaborators, learn from them and learn together. This is what Brecht did.
Seth Godin talks about the concept of ‘more cycles’, when it comes to our actions influencing our outcomes. He discusses focus. You can see one example of Godin’s own commitment in that he blogs every day. Every single day, he produces a piece of writing. Sometime’s it’s just a few sentences. But it keeps the saw sharp.
Whilst Godin talks about focus, I also bear in mind Munger’s advice to try and learn the big ideas across disciplines - ‘to build a latticework of mental models.’
Read as much as you can. Munger often says that his children thought he was actually just ‘a book with legs’. This can sometimes be difficult, our attention is valuable to a lot of people. Social media wants it all. Netflix’s CEO says that his biggest competition isn’t another company, it’s sleep. I find Cal Newport’s writing about this subject useful.
Scott Wadsworth (the Essential Craftsman YouTube channel) talks about advice he got from his father when he was starting out in construction. “Always be hurrying”.
Keep on doing the work. Don’t wait for permission from anyone to do it. Be ready for when the opportunity comes. Recognise that it’s an opportunity. And put all you can into it. Always be hurrying.
Class 5B rocks. Good luck with your exams.
END.