The Importance of Chance Encounters

Excerpt

Isaac Newton once said, “I stood on the shoulders of giants,” and not, milled on the edge of the British 2£ coin are the words, “standing on the shoulders of giants.” Each generation of clinicians, educators, and researchers builds on the work of previous generations. Much has been written about the importance of mentoring to success in academic medicine. Mentors provide knowledge, skills, and connections. They are a living link to the past. Ideally, mentoring connections grow into lifetime reciprocal relationships as one transitions from mentee to colleague. In college basketball, one can see the lineage of mentorship in “mentorship trees.” For example, Larry Brown mentored John Calipari, Bill Self, Gregg Popovich, and Mark Turgeon, among others. Larry Brown won the NCAA national title and his mentees have won multiple NCAA and NBA titles. One seems similar lineages in SGIM. I am part of the Kurt Kroenke tree. Steve Asch is part of the Lisa Rubenstein tree. In turn, we mentor others who will invariably also serve as mentors. Over time, as these trees, they become intertwined, because most of us have more than one mentor during our careers as do our mentees. For example, I have also benefited from Lisa Rubenstein's advice. Mentoring is a skill that is passed down from generation to generation; one can see the forks and branches as these gifts from the heart grow and spread. The perspective of age allows one to recognize and feel the impact of mentors long since gone, either from retirement or from death. Glaser award recipients invariably speak rapturously of their own mentors. Mentorship is not just an important factor in career success, it is a human bond that deepens over time. The fondness one develops for one’s own mentor transcends the benefits one receives. …