Helping teach others has been a recurring topic when I gather with my friends. To simplify things, I’ll refer to this “teaching” as mentoring.
We’ve talked about how to be in a position to mentor one has to have been-there-done-that one’s self. For if you haven’t experienced something first-hand, then how can you hope to impart on others the knowledge of what to expect? Sure, you can research a topic to death and learn from those written documents what you might experience. But to gain the understanding necessary to then mentor others, I believe that you have to have gone through an experience—personally. If not, then what you share is merely hearsay with nothing concrete to back it up.
This isn’t to imply that you can’t be empathetic without having endured what others might. You can be. But to take that empathy to the next level and mentor from it takes personal hands-on experience.
Think of it this way. If you had never ridden a bicycle, felt the wobbliness as you tried to gain balance, then how could you hope to teach another how to ride? To do so requires inside knowledge only gained from having felt that off-balance-and-then-correct-it sensation—personally. The same philosophy holds true with other life skills one wants to improve upon such as: time management, organization, fitness, relationships, self-actualization, etc.
In the business world, you wouldn’t expect to get accurate financial advice from a fitness expert. Conversely, you wouldn’t be willing to pay for advise from someone so far removed from the field of interest in which you’re seeking advanced knowledge. The same mentality should apply when you ask friends or family to mentor you. By asking an unqualified individual to advise on something which they have no personal experience with, you’re setting yourself up to be disappointed—or worse.
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