When I started out in advertising about a hundred years ago, I was very fortunate. One of my mentors was the head of Ogilvy & Mather Hawaii. I worked with him on some very heavy duty accounts including the Hyatt Regency Waikiki and the Hyatt Regency Maui hotels. I thought he’d put some more people on our account team, but no- he said there was no need to. Why? Because he felt with his guiding (i.e. jumping into the trenches and learning hand’s on), that I would understand what to do, and that in time, I’d be able to handle everything just fine. My first thought: ”Are ya nuts?!??? I’m not seasoned! I’m just starting out!” In the beginning of working on these accounts, he would say to me, “Ok… we’ve got 90 days to get it together. After that, we’re in trouble.” So, I took those words to heart and learned everything as quickly as I could. I guess I did okay because in time, I slowly moved up the ranks, and eventually made the cross over into p.r. and marketing.
As my career began to take some sort of shape, there were others who helped along the way. There was my p.r. mentor whose adage, as well as philosophy, was “Go for the gusto, or stay the f(#X* home!” and then my entertainment mentor, who taught me that relationship is key to everything. What was great about these individuals was that there was no hand-holding, there was no coddling, there was no just-go-file-these-papers, kind of training. Oh no Becky. It was full-on, jump in the ocean, go figure it out, and learn how to swim, training. There was no by-the-book theory. It was learning, by doing. I thank them to this day, and I have gone on to mentor others the very same way. Just like a beaming Mom, I am very proud to say that some of the kids I’ve mentored have gone on to become very influential in the communications field. They include one young gentleman who is head of promotions at 20th Century Fox Television, a young woman who handles media traffic for GQ magazine, a young woman who has gone on to head-up the p.r. for a major resort, and another young woman who has a thriving career as a freelance writer.
Mentoring someone is a wonderful thing to do, and if you can make the time to help shape someone else’s career, do it. It has been one of the most important and rewarding things I have ever done in my lifetime. And hey, you never know where your students will end up. In fact, I’ve worked on projects at one time or another with all of the kids I’ve mentored, and they have all been fun collaborations. You know, what they say: great minds think alike! [wink].
