Standing on the shoulders of giants | Austin Stanford | TEDxLakeTravisHigh

Summary

This speech emphasizes the importance of mentorship throughout history, using examples like Yoda from Star Wars, Haymitch from The Hunger Games, and Gandalf from The Lord of the Rings. It discusses how mentors see potential in others and guide them through challenges. The speaker shares personal experiences in seeking mentors, including reaching out to notable figures and learning from his grandfather. The key takeaway is to actively seek mentorship, respect mentors' time, and become a mentor to help others see further, standing on the shoulders of giants.

Takeaways

• 📚 Mentorship has been a vital part of human stories and personal growth throughout history, as exemplified by figures like Odysseus and Yoda.
• 🧐 People are drawn to mentors like Yoda because they embody wisdom and experience, passing on knowledge to the next generation, such as Luke Skywalker.
• 🌟 Mentors see potential in individuals that others might overlook, guiding them to overcome obstacles and achieve their goals, as seen in characters like Haymitch and Gandalf.
• 🔍 The speaker embarked on a 'year of mentors', actively seeking out connections with successful individuals to learn from their experiences.
• 🤔 The quest to find a mentor involves overcoming fear and intimidation, and being persistent in seeking out guidance and opportunities to learn.
• 📈 The speaker discovered that many potential mentors are not being approached due to their high status or popularity, leaving a wealth of untapped knowledge.
• 🤝 To maintain a mentoring relationship, it's important to come prepared with relevant topics and questions, and to respect the mentor's time.
• 💡 Not all potential mentors are sought after, and some are willing but waiting to be asked, presenting an opportunity for those seeking guidance.
• 👴 The personal impact of mentorship can be profound, as the speaker learned from his grandfather, who passed away, and other influential figures in his life.
• 🚀 Sir Isaac Newton's quote about standing on the shoulders of giants emphasizes the importance of learning from those who came before us to achieve greater heights.
• 🤝 The speaker challenges the audience to seek out mentors, learn from them, and also to become mentors themselves, creating a cycle of shared knowledge and growth.

Q & A

What historical example of mentorship is mentioned at the beginning of the script?

The script mentions the example from Homer's 'The Odyssey,' where Odysseus leaves his son Telemachus with his companion Mentor.

Why is Yoda considered a great mentor in the script?

Yoda is considered a great mentor because he passed on his wisdom and experience to Luke Skywalker, seeing potential in him where others saw a simple farmer.

How is Haymitch from 'The Hunger Games' similar to Yoda according to the script?

Haymitch is similar to Yoda because he also saw potential in Katniss Everdeen, guided her through challenges, and helped her become a significant figure in a revolution.

What qualities did Gandalf see in the hobbits that others overlooked?

Gandalf saw that the hobbits were teachable, determined, and full of potential, whereas others saw them as merely indulgent and unimportant.

How did the speaker try to find mentors, and what was the outcome?

The speaker reached out to various high-profile individuals through LinkedIn, Facebook, phone, email, and mail but received no responses until receiving advice from Robert.

What key advice did the speaker receive from Robert regarding finding mentors?

Robert advised the speaker to stop sending 'Will you be my mentor?' emails and start being present and embracing learning opportunities all around.

What realization did the speaker come to about where to look for mentors?

The speaker realized that instead of reaching out to highly popular figures, they should look for mentors who have the same level of expertise but are less sought after.

According to the script, what are the two main requirements to maintain a mentoring relationship?

To maintain a mentoring relationship, one needs to come with relevant topics and questions, and respect the mentor's time.

What personal story did the speaker share about taking a chance on a mentoring opportunity?

The speaker shared a story about choosing to sit with a billionaire CEO in an intimidating situation instead of sitting with friends, which led to a valuable mentoring relationship.

What lesson does the speaker draw from the example of their grandfather?

The speaker learned the importance of spending time and learning from older generations, as their grandfather taught them valuable life lessons and selflessness.

What famous quote does the speaker use to emphasize the importance of mentors, and who said it?

The speaker uses Sir Isaac Newton's quote, 'If I have seen further than others, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants,' to emphasize the importance of mentors.

What challenge does the speaker give to the audience regarding mentorship?

The speaker challenges the audience to be mindful of learning opportunities, seek out mentors, and also proactively invite others to stand on their shoulders to see further.

Outlines

00:00

🧙 Mentorship in Human Stories

The speaker begins by highlighting the importance of mentorship throughout human history, from ancient epics like Homer's Odyssey to modern narratives such as Star Wars, where Yoda serves as a mentor to Luke Skywalker. The speaker emphasizes the role of mentors as experienced guides who impart wisdom and help their mentees realize their potential. They draw parallels between Yoda and other mentors in literature and film, such as Haymitch from 'The Hunger Games' and Gandalf from 'Lord of the Rings,' who all identify and nurture the potential in their mentees, guiding them to overcome challenges and achieve greatness.

05:01

🔎 Finding and Maintaining Mentorship

The speaker shares their personal journey of seeking mentorship, initially attempting to connect with high-profile individuals without success. They then shift their approach to a more data-driven method, collecting information on potential mentors across various industries and their willingness to mentor. The speaker discovers that while many are open to mentoring, few are approached due to intimidation or lack of awareness. They learn that maintaining a mentoring relationship requires bringing relevant topics and respecting the mentor's time. The speaker also explores the reasons why some potential mentors have not been asked to mentor, often due to the fear or hesitation of those seeking guidance.

10:03

🚀 Overcoming Fear to Embrace Mentorship

The speaker recounts personal experiences where overcoming fear led to valuable mentorship opportunities, such as sitting with a billionaire CEO instead of friends during a university event, which resulted in a lasting mentorship. They also share a poignant story about their grandfather, who passed away recently, and the lessons learned from him about love, value, and selflessness. The speaker uses these anecdotes to illustrate the importance of seeking out mentorship and the profound impact it can have on one's life and growth.

15:03

🤝 Becoming Giants for Others to Stand Upon

In the concluding paragraph, the speaker reflects on the concept of standing on the shoulders of giants, as famously stated by Sir Isaac Newton, to see further. They encourage the audience to recognize and seize learning opportunities around them, to ask for mentorship, and to offer their own experience and knowledge to others. The speaker envisions a community where everyone becomes a mentor, helping others to see further and achieve more, thus creating a cycle of shared growth and enlightenment.

Keywords

💡Mentorship

Mentorship is a relationship in which a more experienced or knowledgeable individual guides and supports the development of a less experienced or less knowledgeable one. In the video's theme, mentorship is a vital part of human stories and personal growth, exemplified by figures like Yoda from Star Wars, who imparts wisdom and experience to Luke Skywalker. The speaker's year of mentors highlights the importance of seeking out mentors to learn and grow.

💡Yoda

Yoda is a fictional character from the Star Wars franchise, renowned for his wisdom and mentorship of Luke Skywalker. In the script, Yoda serves as a symbol of the mentor archetype, emphasizing the value of passing on knowledge and experience to the next generation. His character illustrates the transformative impact a mentor can have on a mentee's life.

💡Experience

Experience refers to the knowledge or skill acquired by a person through involvement in or exposure to events. In the context of the video, the speaker discusses the importance of learning from those with rich experiences, such as mentors who can guide and teach based on their own life lessons, as seen with characters like Yoda, Haymitch, and Gandalf.

💡Potential

Potential is the latent qualities or abilities that may be developed and lead to future success or usefulness. The video emphasizes the mentor's ability to recognize and nurture the potential within individuals like Luke Skywalker and Katniss Everdeen. It suggests that mentors see beyond current circumstances to what one can become.

💡Revolution

A revolution is a significant change that usually involves the overthrow or transformation of an established system or practice. In the script, the speaker mentions a revolution started by Katniss Everdeen in 'The Hunger Games,' facilitated by her mentor Haymitch. This illustrates the power of mentorship in inspiring and guiding individuals to effect broader societal change.

💡Fear

Fear is an emotional response to perceived threats or dangers. The video discusses how fear can prevent individuals from seeking mentorship opportunities, as they might be intimidated by the prospect of reaching out to accomplished individuals. The speaker encourages overcoming this fear to embrace learning opportunities.

💡Relevance

Relevance pertains to the significance or applicability of something to a particular matter or situation. In the context of the video, the speaker talks about the importance of making mentorship relevant to one's personal and professional goals, ensuring that the guidance received is pertinent and valuable.

Highlights

Mentorship has been a vital part of human stories throughout recorded history.

Yoda is liked because he passed on his wisdom and experience to Luke Skywalker.

People identify with Luke Skywalker, who was seen by Yoda as teachable, driven, and full of potential.

Haymitch from 'The Hunger Games' is a great mentor because he recognized Katniss's potential and helped her navigate the games.

Gandalf in 'Lord of the Rings' saw the potential in the hobbits and guided them through their journey.

The speaker embarked on a 'Year of Mentors,' connecting with influential people to learn from them.

Notable individuals like Mark Cuban and Bear Grylls did not respond to the speaker's mentorship requests.

Robert Herjavec's response helped the speaker realize the importance of being present and embracing learning opportunities.

Mentorship is often found in less obvious places, not just among the most famous or successful.

Persistence is key in finding a mentor; one should keep asking until someone agrees.

Maintaining a mentoring relationship requires coming with relevant topics and respecting the mentor's time.

Many potential mentors are overlooked because people are scared to reach out to them.

The speaker's personal story of learning from his grandfather, who passed away recently, emphasizes the importance of taking advantage of mentorship opportunities.

Sir Isaac Newton's quote about standing on the shoulders of giants illustrates the concept of learning from those who came before us.

The speaker challenges the audience to become 'giants' themselves, offering their knowledge and experience to others.

The speaker encourages proactively inviting others to learn from one's experiences to help them see further.

Transcripts

[Music]

so as far back as we go in recorded

human history all the way to the epics

written by Homer the Odyssey where

Odysseus leaves his son Telemachus with

his companion mentor while he's off on

his adventures all the way to a long

long time ago in a galaxy far far away

mentorship has been a vital part of

human stories and what it means to be

human

now with that example we're gonna focus

a little more on Yoda because I know

nothing about ancient Greek literature

at all

Yoda why do we like Yoda and this may be

the wrong demographic for this but is it

because he makes for a funny meme

obviously not I would say that the

reason we like Yoda is because he passed

on what he learned

you see Yoda in the story if anyone here

had a childhood had is a very wise being

as someone who came from lots of

experience and he passed that experience

on to Luke Skywalker and often times we

identify with Luke the reason we like

Yoda is because when other people saw

Luke Skywalker outside of outside of

Yoda

people saw him as a young destitute

farmer in the desert I guess farming

sand really doing nothing on the

fast-track to a life of mediocrity the

reason we like Yoda is because he saw

Luke and he saw someone who was

teachable driven and full of potential

and stepped into his life and showed him

how to navigate the obstacles that were

to come the reason we like Yoda is the

same reason we like

Haymitch from The Hunger Games you see

besides the clinical drunkenness

Haymitch was a great mentor to Katniss

Everdeen where people saw a poor girl

who had to hunt for her food Haymitch

saw someone who was teachable determined

in full of potential and showed her how

to navigate the games because Haymitch

has been there before he's navigated

these he's seen what it takes to get to

the other side successful not only

successfully but bonus points get

through alive but he didn't stop there

because what he saw in her was so much

greater he helped to turn her into an

icon that helped us start a revolution

that ended up changing the world

the reason we like Haymitch is the same

reason we like Gandalf from Lord of the

Rings you see where lots of people saw

the hobbits as little half sized people

who ate too much drank too much smoke

too much slept too much partied too much

and lived in little weird houses gandalf

saw a group of people who were teachable

determined and full of potential gandalf

had fought the evil that was coming to

face them before gandalf had been there

gandalf knows how to get through that

and with the people that he saw

potential in he was able to pass that

knowledge on to them so that they might

do the same and so you might be asking

the same thing i was asking about a year

ago when i was here i how do we how do

we get mentors how do we find mentors

like this I'm not

Katniss I'm not Luke I'm not Frodo I'm

not the main character in an epic story

how do I find a mentor so I wanted to

answer that question and so what I did

was over the past year I connected with

people through LinkedIn Facebook phone

email in actual mail in some cases

believe it or not and called it my year

of mentors where no matter what no

matter who the person was no matter

their their title their status if they'd

been on TV before or whatever I wasn't

let anything intimidate me I was gonna

see what it took to connect with truly

great people to learn great things and

you'll be surprised at a few of the

people who were part of that Mark Cuban

Bear Grylls Greg Abbott just down the

road

Ellen Morgan Freeman and Robert

kerkovich Archibeque he's on Shark Tank

with Mark Cuban I can never say his name

right every single one of these people

as I reached out did not respond none

not not one time actually that is until

all Robbie here came and clutched for me

and responded it was not the response I

was looking for he said stop will you

stop the will you be my mentor emails

and start being present to embrace the

learning opportunities all around you so

I'd like to give myself one point for

getting someone to respond it wasn't

exactly what I was looking for but it

was helpful because it helped me to

determine what I needed to do where I

needed to look to find the mentors that

I was looking for the mentorship would

connect with us and as I collected data

of of who these people were what

industry they were in what level of the

industry how long they've had experience

there how many tries it took me to get

there blah blah blah blah blah this big

excel sheet full of data I compressed it

all into the next slide and it may be a

little advanced it may be it may be a

lot to take in so if you have questions

we're gonna be outside and I'd love for

you to come and talk to me if you don't

get it so I'll try to go slow this is

the best place to look for a mentor you

don't want to sacrifice on expertise but

you don't want to be looking at the red

carpet like I was I was starting to feel

down on myself because no one was

responding but I realized thanks to

Robert that I was looking in the wrong

spot you see when we reach out to people

like Morgan Freeman if we want to become

an actor we we're reaching out to

someone that thousands and thousands of

other people are reaching out to and

there's other people around who are

still have the same amount of expertise

but are far less popular these people

that I connected with in this little

star area where we're still CEOs of

Fortune 100 and even fortune ten

companies these are local founders of

businesses here in Austin these are

actors these are speakers these are

government officials keynote speakers

really interesting people that I was

still able to connect with and because I

started to see more people responding

and connecting

I wanted to gather two bits of data the

first how many times it took to reach

out or how many how many reaching out

attempts it took to get someone to

respond

I stopped gathering that data because it

got hard and I'm not a scientist and B I

realized it didn't matter because if you

want a mentor you should just keep

asking you should ask until someone says

yes maybe not the same person use your

judgement but you just keep asking so I

stopped gathering that bit of data and I

started to focus on this this question

alone has anyone outside of your direct

reports at work asked you to be a mentor

to them

the reason I ask this is because you

know we found out a what it takes to get

a mentor and that's just asking being

bold and asking until you get one that's

good and now we need to find out how we

keep a mentor so in this blue section

the people who said yes people do reach

out to me and have asked me I asked the

follow-up question of I asked the

follow-up question of what does it take

to maintain that mentoring relationship

and everybody who responded said

essentially the same thing in their own

words they said two points number one

you need to come with relevant topics

and relevant questions and number two

you need to come with a respect for time

which makes sense because the people we

want to learn from are often off being

successful and by virtue of that don't

have tons of time and so to help you

understand that I'll give you a

hypothetical situation a hypothetical

story let's just say again

hypothetically there's some handsome guy

who's preparing for a TEDx talk in I

don't know Austin and and he reaches out

to a keynote speaker at LinkedIn and

says hey I'm preparing for this thing I

literally have no clue what I'm doing

would you connect with me once a month

and help me prepare for this and she

says sure

and in that TEDx a person the handsome

guy goes to the first mentoring session

and sits down and just waits

and the the conversation is probably

gonna go a little something like the

keynote speaker saying hey my time is

valuable your time is also valuable you

can't just come here and expect for some

fountain of wisdom to pour upon you I

don't know who you are I don't know what

you do I don't know what you're looking

for you need to come with relevant

topics that we can talk about and so

again hypothetically take that and learn

from that story we need to come with

relevant topics and in a in a respect

for time so that's how we maintain the

relationship and so now that we know

that's how you maintain it and the way

you get it is by asking let's focus on

this orange reddish section here these

are the people who said no no one has

reached out to me but I am willing to be

a mentor and that to me is something a

resource that's sad to waste something

that it's it's it's a pity that's we're

not taking advantage of and so to these

people my follow-up question was why why

do you think no one has reached back out

to you or why do you think no one has

asked you to be a mentor to them and

their answers again all said essentially

the same thing in their own words they

said I think people are scared and when

I hear that it makes me think of if I

was scared what the mentoring

opportunities and the in the experiences

I would have missed out on if if I

hadn't tried or asked two years ago

maybe maybe three years ago I was at the

University I attended and I represented

the a student section where when when

donors would approach the university to

give money we would always take them to

some super nice dinner and there would

be a group of student representatives in

front and in two Cadillacs to s what's

the word to the super nice Cadillac SUV

Escalades which up nice would show up

and you know in the front the donors

would get in and in the back the

representatives would get in and I

remember standing there and looking and

seeing in both there was one seat

available in the left in the back

Escalade was my friends the people I

knew the people I did this with the

people I hang out with every day and in

the front was a billionaire CEO and

founder of a tech company and I could

have gone to safety I could have gone to

what was you know natural and safe right

but instead I'm I'm happy I made the

decision I went and sat with the kind of

uncomfortable and intimidating situation

and I'll tell you when I got there the

the donor the main donor the the founder

of the tech company was sitting in the

passenger seat of the front turned

around hugging his headrest in a kind of

uncomfortable fashion looking at me

straight in the eyes and asking me who I

was what I did why I did it

he was so interested in me and I in turn

was also very interested in him that

that I in at the end ended up asking him

would you mind exchanging contact

information would you mind if throughout

the year I reached out to you a couple

times and he said yes and so now a few

times a year over phone over text which

is funny to text a billionaire and over

email I am able to ask questions to a

really truly incredible person and I

have that because I wasn't scared I

wasn't fearful and I walked into a

slightly intimidating situation this

next slide is gonna be a little harder

for me to get through probably and

partially because my family's here but

this man is album Calvin Stanford he's

my grandfather and two and a half months

ago or so as I was preparing for this

talk he passed away and and I was there

and it was really tough and I just

looked at my dad in the audience and it

makes it harder you know I was there and

it was it was tough

and but I know when it happened though

it was devastating

I I had a sense of peace because I I

spent time with him you know I spent

time with him I whenever we sat around

we would talk and I would stay and I

would talk and I would call this man

multiple times a month I feel like

sometimes there's such a disconnect in

the generations where kids get to their

grandparents house and they think he's

weird because he has a VHS and I don't

know what that stands for or grandpa

asked me for a Wi-Fi and that makes no

sense and we miss out on that and if I

if I didn't take advantage while he was

here I wouldn't have what I have now

this man taught me what it means to love

people what it means to value people he

was also the most selfless man I ever

knew and when I was younger I thought he

was an angel which is funny to me today

and so I think Sir Isaac Newton said it

best when he said if I have seen further

than others it is by standing upon the

shoulders of giants you see this came at

a time when he was being praised for his

academic his technological achievements

in his scientific advancements and when

people were saying

uuugh he said no not me them not me the

people who stick whose shoulders I am

standing on they have paved a way they

have held my hand they have showed me

what I need to do to get to the where I

am they have helped me see further these

two men that I've mentioned tonight are

two examples of the many giants in my

life there's a lot more and there's a

few in this room today and I'm glad

they're here and so my challenge to

everyone here whatever you're going into

whatever age you are be mindful of the

opportunities to learn around you look

for those giants and ask them if you can

stand on their shoulders because I

promise when you do you will see further

and beyond that what if everyone here

today all of us together became giants

of our own and instead of waiting for

others to ask to stand on our shoulders

we invited them proactively to stand on

ours so they can see further as well

thank you

[Applause]