Mentors – good leaders have had one and are willing to become one. Are you a mentor?

In the Impossibility Theorem, Thomas Schelling (Nobel Prize, 2005) claimed that, "One thing a person cannot do, no matter how rigorous his analysis or heroic his imagination, is to draw up a list of things that would never occur to him." Why is this important? Have you ever said to yourself I should have thought of that or that is so obvious why didn't I create that? This can happen to us when we are listening to the news, reading an internet article, attending a class or seminar etc. Thomas Schelling's research is important, because we must face the reality that "WE DIDN'T think of it.



Knowledge and understanding of the impossibility theorem is very important to help us eliminate the “ah ha” moment. How do we eliminate these moments? Well first we must be open to new ideas and new technologies. A great avenue for young and old to enhance their creativity and eliminate these moments is to engage in the mentoring process. This provides quality human-to-human interaction to access new ideas validated through the human experience.


Mentors typically have a wide breadth of experience and knowledge that will help the mentee determine and bound a problem that may be either difficult for them to define/wrap their head around or is improperly defined by their supervision. A good mentor will help the mentee appreciate and understand the thinking process and thus help enhance their mentee’s decision processes through the exploration of different approaches to a given situation.


Bottom line: knowledge is powerful. Not power, but powerful. The more you have, the more you can contribute and a mentor can help you get there faster by constantly challenging how you view a given situation – thus increasing the opportunity to invent something.

Scott K. Thompson