The best thing a mentor can do is to instill self-confidence
I received this letter from a young woman who I'd mentored at The Earth Times. I was so touched by what she said that I thought I should share the note. (I have withheld her name.)
Dear Pranay:
Happy New Year! I was delighted to find an e-mail from you in my inbox the other day. I looked you up on the internet recently (the power of Google!) in order to find contact information for you, and
I stumbled upon your Website. I found the “journalism” section quite interesting, and many of the “Pranay Principles” strikingly familiar!
I have thought about you quite a bit lately, especially since the premedical committee at Columbia asked that all of us students write an essay on the experiences that have most impacted our lives, and to begin to assemble letters of recommendation from integral professors and mentors. I have been prompted to write about either working at Fox News Channel on 9/11, or building a television station at Columbia, helping my friend through a stroke or having surgery this summer (I’m fine now). These are all relatively straightforward topics for me, easy to write about, but none of them has made as much of an impact on my life as did my time working for you, which is why I have chosen to write about it.
In a short period of time, I went from sitting in classrooms and discussing global politics over lattes with my peers to interviewing celebrities, meeting world leaders, writing articles, posing for photographs, flying to conferences in Brazil on my own, and conducting meetings with heads of successful companies like Swiss Re. To say that I was always comfortable, always at ease would be a lie, but your sink or swim attitude forced me to dig deep and to keep a cool head, and gave me a poise and confidence that I sense in myself today. If I can run up and shake Donald Trump’s hand, interrupt Diane von Furstenberg and Princess Farahnaz lunching at the Four Seasons to introduce myself, or chat up Nitin Desai [of the United Nations] and President Mbeki [of South Africa], then I feel I can certainly hold my own with a professor, a dean, or an interview committee, a patient or a doctor.
I appreciate that you gave me these opportunities. I have never encountered anyone in my life other than you that I would truly consider a “mentor;” I have worked for plenty of people, but no one else has made an active effort to impart their wisdom and personal experience on me. No one else has ever seen me challenged to such a degree either, and so I feel you know me best...Every day, I appreciate and benefit from the skills that I developed working with you and I find the lessons that I learned from you applicable in medicine as well. This summer, I traveled around Iran on my own and worked in an orphanage for children with severe mental and physical disabilities in Tehran, and I think that some of the adventurous spirit, and the ability to move forward with ideas despite my nerves, is a result of working at Earthtimes.
Regardless of what you decide about the letter, I am trying to keep my writing and communication skills strong despite my silent affair with my organic chemistry textbook, so if ever you choose to expand the “Pranay Principles” into a book or a manual for young journalists as I feel you should, please count me in on the project in some capacity. Or if you need a reporter or a writer on the ground here in NYC, please do not hesitate to contact me. It is important to me that I continue writing in addition to pursuing medicine.
I would like to hear stories of your adventures as well, so please contact me if you find yourself back on home turf here in New York.
I hope my (long!) letter finds you well.