How Books Can Be Your Mentors

I always hated listening to other people talking. I don’t know why but within a few seconds I feel like interrupting the person talking because I believe that I already knew what she wanted to say or because I was just too impatient.

My attention span was probably shorter than the one of a fly.

That’s why I also stopped attending classes at university after the first semester. Instead of going to class I preferred to learn it at home all by myself instead of having to listen to someone talking.

I don’t know why I had this problem of listening to other people but it might be a problem I have had with authorities. I really don’t know.

Luckily, I was able to change that habit and became an avid question-asker (I don’t even know if this word exists, but whatever). So instead of trying to become a good listener I decided to become better at asking questions.

And that ultimately lead me to becoming a better listener. And this helped me to achieve three things at the same time:

• It forced me to listen because I asked the question.
• I was able to influence the direction & topics of the conversation.
• I tried to learn new things about all sorts of things by asking all sorts of questions.

Not too long ago some of my friends told me that they feel annoyed by the amount of questions I ask. Even though most of the questions might seem unimportant to most people they usually help me to understand a lot of different things a lot better.

I guess there was just one thing I hated more than listening to other people and it was taking or listening to other people’s advice. I was sure I could handle this life all by myself and that I didn’t need anyone that could point me in the right direction.

I’m a grown man. I’m not a kid anymore. I can handle my stuff. I don’t need an old dude that gives me advice on what I should do and what I shouldn’t do. I guess I was somehow immune against advice.

What really surprised me was the fact that becoming a better listener ultimately also opened up my ears for other people’s advice. I started reading a lot of books. Before that I never even looked at books at all. The only books I read were the books that helped me pass a test at university.

I thought that books were for self help searching fools that either lost their minds, their dignity or were just plain stupid. But what I realized during the past years is that most of the stuff out there has some really, really good stuff in it.

I hate to admit it but I have to say that books have somehow become my mentors.

Now everyone is talking about finding mentors these days. It’s all about finding someone (or even more people) that will help you navigate your life, your career and what not. It looks like a battle for the world’s best mentors broke out.

But honestly speaking I never ever met a person where I would say wow she impresses me or anything like that. How do you even ask someone to become your mentor? Do you apply or what? In any case I imagine it to be a super weird situation.

So until I find someone that really impresses me (and even after I found someone), I’ll just continue getting the best advice from the world’s best mentors by reading about their ideas, thoughts and experiences in their books.

Because what they share in their books is usually their best stuff. Their best ideas. Their best thoughts and their best experiences. No one wants to sell a book with mediocre ideas…

And these days you can even get access to the world’s best mentors and their best work for just $9.99 a month. You don’t even have to worry about spending too much money on ebooks anymore…

It’s like a mentor flatrate!

P.S.: Here’s the list of my favorite mentors.

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