It is true. Sometimes you need to do selfless deeds and they do make you feel good.
Case in point.
A friend asked me to be a mentor in a ideas-pitching event. Most ideas are in the computing industry or using apps to run other industries.
It is called hackSudan (Sudan being our country).
Did a lot of research. Aside from listening to my friend, I read all about the two previous events, read and followed all startup events that were similar. Then I read about mentorship for such events.. which is slightly different than "pure" mentorship.
I had to prepare people who are mostly engineers to present for business people. This is the hardest thing to do. Engineers thing that business people are sh*t and vice versa.
So I did what needs to be done.. first being preparing a presentation pointers - and called it (hack the presentation) and second.. I had to listen.. really listen.. I could have done with a five minutes session with each group but that would have reinforced the negative impression that they have of business people.. so I stretched the session into 45 minutes. That was brutal for me.. but in the long term I may have improved those engineers impression about business people the tiniest little bit.
Most of those guys did not listen to the advice nor heeded it. Except one guy. He was slightly older that the rest and had real life work experience. He is Nigerian, not Sudanese. I think that was why he listened to me.. He was not prejudiced towards me. He read my notes and BAM ! He WON.
Why did he win ?
Apart for his great solid idea..which is essential.. my notes filled in the blanks, that is I gave the presenter all the points which business people (like myself) need to hear to be satisfied with the financial feasibility of the project. I reverse-engineerd my role.
I wanted everybody to win. They won't all win in competition, but they might well win later in life. I'd like to think that my session with them would be the spark that ignited the powerhouse of creativity, invention and success.
My Nigerian protogee has become one of my great friends,, which is a real win for me.
If I were asked to do it again, I would, patiently and, gladly do it.
Case in point.
A friend asked me to be a mentor in a ideas-pitching event. Most ideas are in the computing industry or using apps to run other industries.
It is called hackSudan (Sudan being our country).
Did a lot of research. Aside from listening to my friend, I read all about the two previous events, read and followed all startup events that were similar. Then I read about mentorship for such events.. which is slightly different than "pure" mentorship.
I had to prepare people who are mostly engineers to present for business people. This is the hardest thing to do. Engineers thing that business people are sh*t and vice versa.
So I did what needs to be done.. first being preparing a presentation pointers - and called it (hack the presentation) and second.. I had to listen.. really listen.. I could have done with a five minutes session with each group but that would have reinforced the negative impression that they have of business people.. so I stretched the session into 45 minutes. That was brutal for me.. but in the long term I may have improved those engineers impression about business people the tiniest little bit.
Most of those guys did not listen to the advice nor heeded it. Except one guy. He was slightly older that the rest and had real life work experience. He is Nigerian, not Sudanese. I think that was why he listened to me.. He was not prejudiced towards me. He read my notes and BAM ! He WON.
Why did he win ?
Apart for his great solid idea..which is essential.. my notes filled in the blanks, that is I gave the presenter all the points which business people (like myself) need to hear to be satisfied with the financial feasibility of the project. I reverse-engineerd my role.
I wanted everybody to win. They won't all win in competition, but they might well win later in life. I'd like to think that my session with them would be the spark that ignited the powerhouse of creativity, invention and success.
My Nigerian protogee has become one of my great friends,, which is a real win for me.
If I were asked to do it again, I would, patiently and, gladly do it.
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