Knowledge from a Mentor

Much, if not all of our knowledge is based on mentoring. A dictionary definition of mentoring is "an influential senior sponsor or supporter".

Our first mentor is our mother and father. From the next is the environment we grow up in. As we move to formal education and filed with facts and methods our teachers methods and their philosophical tidbits that determine our personalities.

Not all mentoring is done by a superior. As I have used Professor Harrison and Dean Bollinger as a example, they solicited me, a student with unique experience, as a mentor. I also believe their quizzing of me was not a unique experience for them.

Also the senior Professor Harrison was mentoring a future Dean Bollinger and a forever grateful undergrad student, me.

Innovation and Investing

Which comes first, innovation or investment? Unlike the chicken and egg question, their is a answer for the investment-inovation question. In a early post, I said innovation comes first. But the fuel for innovation is knowledge.

How do we obtain knowledge? By three methods: Mentoring, formal education and training and experience.

All start the mentoring the minute we are born. We eventually have several in our lifetime but our first mentors are our parents. Unless we become a hermit, mentoring is a life time experience. And mentoring can be either positive or negative.

I have been fortunate in my life that the most mentoring experience has been positive. But often the source of a mentoring person is both positive and negative. And example that comes to mind is my good friend Stan. We share experiences and often seek the other for advice. But also remember when we used to test our "Fords" on public highways. I have grounded my own children for doing similar testing.

When I was in college at University of Wisconsin in Madison my favorite professor was Harold Harrison. He was of course called "Harry Harry" or Harry to the second power. He also advisor to a PHD candidate by the name of John G Bollinger, who latter become Dean of the college of engineering at the U of W. I also took a class from ç in advanced vibrations analysis. One time when I was in Harry Harry's office Bollinger came in and as we ended our official business I was invited to join them at the Hasty Tasty for a glass of beer. Why? Because Professor Harrison and PHD candidate were academics and I had about 4 years experience at 3M. They were "picking" my brain about my 3M experiences and I recall the question how my studies related to my possible future employment at 3M.

All three principles was coming together at that social event; mentoring, formal education and experience.

In future blogs I will discuss each of these knowledge accruing methods.