Microfinanseer

During the last days of December, one of my best friends since I was a teenager came to visit me from Chicago. She brought me what she described as a Japanese “good luck charm” for the new year - it was my Daruma Doll. Given the kind of year I had throughout 2011, she said she figured she didn’t think it could hurt. She explained that the ritual of the doll involved me drawing in one eye, while wishing for something I really wanted or had been working toward, and then thinking about that wish everyday and keeping the doll near me. She added that if all went well and I concentrated on a positive outcome, then when my wish came true, I should draw in the other eye. At the end of the year in the Japanese town where the Daruma doll originated, my good friend told me, it is customary to gratefully acknowledge the Daruma dolls and then burn them in a ceremonious bonfire. I liked the story and thanked my friend. I liked the way the doll looked, but was admittedly, and unsurprisingly, skeptical about the myth behind it. I just put the lovely little doll on my bookshelf in my office and sort of forgot about her, to be honest.

Then one day, a few weeks into 2012, I happened to look up on my bookshelf while thinking of some work plans and realized I had ignored Daruma all of this time. I felt a little guilty about not having followed up with it and also a renewed sense of hope that happens generally at the beginning of a new year. I thought, “why not?” So I took the doll down off of the shelf and looked at her and drew in the first eye, while wishing for a specific wish. I am going to keep my wish to myself. But let’s just say I was wishing for a better year than the last. Plus, I think the lesson is not about what the wish was per se, but instead about the possibility of change and the hope associated with believing in that possibility. I had almost lost hope that things could change very much given how long it felt that things had not gone quite right.

After drawing in the first eye to my Daruma, I placed her close to me - at first on my nightstand and then on my desk - and looked at her periodically just hoping to turn a corner. The suddenly, within several days of drawing in the first eye, things did start to turn around in ways I had been waiting for. I even carried Daruma with me periodically if I was going to any important meeting or function where my wish could be affected. It was as if a cloud had been lifted or someone turned a light switch on. I came out from the dark and into some serious light. Bright light, too! It was wonderful and I couldn’t help silly for thinking that Daruma had much to do with it. But otherwise I had not done anything differently than I had been doing, so why did things suddenly start to click and work out in ways that for many, many months before they did not? I don’t know and likely will never know. All I know is that once I acknowledged my Daruma Doll, keeping in mind the wish and the goal I had been working toward for so long, things fell into place. That’s all I can say.

Well, actually I can also say that I am no longer asking myself about where I’ve been or where I think I’m headed. Instead, I am asking myself enthusiastically, “where to next”? And thanking Daruma every step of the way.

I never thought much about good luck charms or making wishes, but I must say that I have reason to believe they are not such bad ideas after all.

I spoke to one of my mentors the other day. I know she is a private person and because I respect her privacy, let’s call her Danielle. I called Danielle, as I have many times over the years, to get her insight and expertise about an issue I am working on. Not only did I get some information that will make my project easier, but I also got the immeasurable support and encouragement that she has always shown me since I first worked for her over a decade ago.

It wasn’t until I actually got a mentor that I realized how valuable and important they can be in our lives. I had always heard from people that mentors mattered, but only until I had my very own was that importance made more vivid for me. Mentors can serve us well in so many ways, both professionally and personally. They are more than simply counselors or teachers to us. Good mentors serve to provide us just the right combination of inspiration, knowledge, and cheering on at just the right times. They also can provide us a way to measure where we are in life and help us see how much further we have left to go.

I attribute a lot of my professional skills and training in grants and business development to my time working with Danielle. She hired me even though I had no experience in the field. She took a chance on me and perhaps saw a potential in me, even beyond my own expectations of myself. The arrangement worked out well for both of us as I was eager to learn a new trade and, as it turns out, Danielle was eager to teach someone. I have always considered myself fortunate that our paths crossed when they did.

By the end of the time I worked with Danielle, we were co-teaching courses on research grant development - something that only two years before, I could not have imagined I would be able to do. However as important as it was to learn from Danielle the details for my work in the grants field, it turned out that I also learned a great deal about what defines professionalism and what good management looks like along the way. And those work lessons have proved to be even more valuable to me in all sorts of professional settings. Danielle is intelligent, on time, assertive, and graceful all of the time. I have told Danielle this many times over the years, but very few (and more like maybe 1 or 2) supervisors have even come close to her. Even today, she sets a great example for me and makes me work harder to apply what I learned from her.

So, what is the point? The point is mentoring matters. Being mentored by the right person can provide professional nourishment in ways that are tough to calculate. Danielle has always been my biggest fan. And for that, almost above all else, I am most grateful. Becoming a mentor to someone else is an incredible investment, to be sure, but the profits gained not just by the mentee, but by all who work with that person, are potentially so very great. I wish more good people mentored and allowed themselves to be mentored by good people. Our work lives would likely improve immensely.

If you haven’t found a mentor yet, this Top 10 list  is a good substitute until you find your personal champion. 

That’s what my fortune cookie said a few days ago. All I could think when I saw that fortune was, “finally!” It sure feels like the right direction these days.

I know I have been away from my blog for a long time. Too long, really. I apologize to myself almost as much as to any of you who may keep up with me here. I don’t presume that there are many of you - or any of you. Nonetheless, I wish I had found more time somehow to keep up with a bit of writing and linking to my interests here.

Where have I been? For the last month or so, I have been adjusting to a wonderfully new job, new schedule, and a new outlook on my career. It has been amazing so far, but has resulted in often not having enough time to do everything I used to do when I was a one-woman, Microfinanseer show. In a bigger sense, I have been much further away for quite some time. I feel like I was on one of those around-the-world whirlwind tours in the last year - but the adventures were not always positive, as enlightening as they might have been. Days of last year are sort of blurred by many disappointments with punctuated low moments mixed in just to make sure I was not feeling bored. I tried so many times to turn it around, but it was the proverbial uphill battle every step of the way.