The Power of Mentoring

I spent the past weekend in Moab, Utah with my youngest daughter and wife. It was a lot of fun and even though I have been to Moab a number of times, managed to do some very different things. Normally we go down and make sure to visit Arches National Park. This time we bypassed it and spent most of our time in the Sand Flats Recreation Area. It was a lot of fun.

I made reservations for the hotel several months ago and let my good buddy Brett know that we would be in one of his favorite parts of the world. He asked if he could come along and maybe invite a few friends. They all made arrangements to stay in the same hotel and I thought it would be fun to take my wife's Jeep on some of the world-famous Jeep trails in Moab. My youngest daughter did not like all of the company. Furthermore she wanted to hike to some of the well-visited sites inside of Arches and thought Jeeping would be boring.

While I am an expert skier, I am a novice when it comes to four wheeling. Brett has a lot of experience taking guys like me and helping them build their courage. He also brought along another expert to help with the learning process as well as another novice to coach. All us novice guys had to do was to follow the experts up and down the right lines. It was great having proper coaching and by the end of the trip I was much more confident in my off-road driving abilities. More importantly, I was watching my daughter in the rear-view mirror and she had a constant grin. Half-way through the trip I asked her if she wanted to stop riding in the Jeep and go hiking. Nope, she wanted to keep going.

So what does this have to do with computers? Any time you find yourself trying to learn something new with respect to technology, try to find yourself someone who can mentor you. You will progress much faster than if you try to figure it out on your own. It will also be a lot more fun.