How I Found My Mentors on the Bookshelf

Joe ByerlyJune 28, 2022

When you and I were growing up, we read stories and watched movies that gave us a sense of comfort that we wouldn’t have to do life alone. The hero or heroine always had someone in their corner helping them along their journey. Luke Skywalker had Yoda and some robots to assist him in becoming a Jedi. Cinderella had the fairy godmother and a few mice to help her discover her true self. And Simba had Rafiki, Timon, and Pumba to help him navigate his destiny. Now that we’re adults, many of us wish we had these same guides to help us navigate our roles as leaders. How awesome would it be to have a small cricket with a top hat on our shoulders, offering sage advice whenever we have to have a difficult conversation? But that’s just fantasy….or is it? I used to believe that guides or mentors had to be physically present in my life, available for a call, an email, or a text at a moment’s notice to gain clarity around an idea or decision. Over time, I realized that everyone is busy. The mentors and confidants in my life also had lives, they were on their own journeys, and were sometimes just too busy for me. Instead of letting frustration and loneliness overtake me, I looked elsewhere for help. I wasn’t the first person to figure out that books could provide us with stand-in companions to help us along our way. The Roman philosopher Seneca pointed out (with a hint of snark) that we would be hypocritical to get upset with mentors who can’t make time for us, when we barely make time for ourselves. Instead, he recommended we find them in the bookshelves of libraries because they are available “to all mortals by night or by day.” Over the last few years, I found an endless supply of mentors who sat with me at 4 a.m. over a cup of coffee, spoke to me on my drive to work, or imparted some knowledge minutes before I fell asleep – all within the pages of a book. For instance, Ryder Carroll taught me the importance of making journaling a habit in his book, The Bullet Journal Method; Kim Scott gave me a blueprint for creating a culture that values professional feedback in Radical Candor; in, An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield warned me that if I defined success only in my peak moments, I would never be in content in life; and Victoria Wellman gave me valuable tips for becoming a better public speaker in her new book, Before You Say Anything. These leaders, athletes, authors, and philosophers have now become a part of who I am. I share their wisdom on my "From the Green Notebook" podcast and my Monthly Reading List newsletter. As philosopher Alain de Botton so eloquently wrote in The School of Life,

“Key figures from your imaginary tribe are with you: their perspective, their habits, their ways of looking at things are in your mind, just as if they were really by your side whispering in your ear. And so we can confront the difficult stretches of existence not simply on the basis of our own small resources but accompanied by the accumulated wisdom of the kindest, most intelligent voices of all ages.”

So, while I can’t have an enlightening conversation with Yoda or lift my spirits with a sing-along with a warthog and a meerkat, I don’t have to lead alone. I’ve got over 5,000 years of guides and companions to choose from, and all are literally only a page away.

Joe Byerly