Each Tuesday night for the past three months I've lived the FastTrac experience at the ATDC. Twenty young companies learning to plan their business, think through their business models, and get a grip on the realities of capital & cash flow.
The program includes successful CEO's both as guest speakers and as mentors to smaller groups, along with a nightly trail mix of lawyers, angels, VC's and accountants to dimensionalize our thinking. I've made some good friends and I'm a better person for the experience.
Last night was the "end" of the official program. And what appropriate timing - Thanksgiving.
In thanking our mentor, Emma Morris, I offered a reflection on the Origin of the word, Mentor - from Word Origins. This excerpt had inspired me; I hope you enjoy it too.
“When Odysseus, hero of Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, set out for the siege of Troy, he was afraid that he was going to be gone for quite a while, so he left his household and his wife Penelope in the care of his trusted friend, Mentor.
“But once Odysseus was away, things went from bad to worse in his house what with Penelope’s suitors drinking up the contents of his wine-cellar and butchering the cattle to their own use.
“The wise goddess, Pallas Athene, saw all this going on from the Olympian heaven, and became afraid that Odysseus wouldn’t have any home to come back to.
“So she asked Zeus, the father of the gods, whether she shouldn’t go down and help out: He said “yes”, so Athene assumed the shape of Mentor and whispered a lot of sound advice into the ear of young Telemachus, son of Odysseus.”
That we can all be so lucky as to find a Mentor to whisper in our ears, and protect our wine-cellar and cattle!
Happy Thanksgiving.
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