Tag: christmas

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DGQ 9: If your house were burning down right now, minus your phone and laptop, if you could only carry just one more item, what would be that item you would save from the fire?

christmas, gift, present

This isn’t a new question. I’m sure most of you have heard of this question before. But recently, I realized how powerful this question is when you need an answer or answers for this time of the year.

You guessed it. It’s the season of giving. And holy frick, finding gifts to give during Secret Santa and to your loved ones is often much more of a dilemma than it should be. I know I’m not alone in that sentiment since the above question transpired as a result of the shared camaraderie my friends and I felt in choosing gifts. The more gifts you are expected to give, the more anxiety you exponentially feel.

So without giving away too much and to keep the element of surprise, I found this question immensely useful.

If your house were burning down right now, minus your phone and laptop, if you could only carry just one more item, what would be that item you would save from the fire?

You can always increase the quantity of items someone can save from the fire.

Some people give practical answers, which ends up being a rough proxy that they will appreciate more functional gifts.

Some people give answers with sentimental value. These individuals will enjoy gifts that have a backstory to them. The gifts don’t have to be expensive, but they carry significant value if they:

  • They come from the heart. Or…
  • They cost you an arm and a leg to get. Your gifts were the product of a journey where you went above and beyond.

Either way, the gift needs to be accompanied with a heartfelt card.

Hopefully, if you’re stuck without ideas this holiday season, this short blogpost might offer some inspiration.

Photo by Joshua Lam on Unsplash

The DGQ series is a series dedicated to my process of question discovery and execution. When curiosity is the why, DGQ is the how. It’s an inside scoop of what goes on in my noggin’. My hope is that it offers some illumination to you, my readers, so you can tackle the world and build relationships with my best tools at your disposal. It also happens to stand for damn good questions, or dumb and garbled questions. I’ll let you decide which it falls under.

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Three Types of Mentors

Photo by Rohan Makhecha on Unsplash

Christmas 2019 has finally turned its page, and Santa has granted with us with either presents or coal. Then again, coal may not be so bad. In /r/ShowerThoughts (where I regrettably spend maybe a wee bit too much time in), a Redditor shared that with a little pressure, naughty kids can turn their coals into diamonds.

Possibly deserving coal myself, every year, between Christmas and the new year, I regress to a husk of myself and binge the eight Harry Potter movies. Inspired by the Triwizard tournament, Cedric Diggory’s valiant sacrifice, and in a beautiful Socratic debate with some of my friends on Harry’s most impactful mentor, an unlikely hero came up – Mad-Eye Moody.

The Three Types of Witches/Wizards

As a nerd about mentorship, I believe mentorship is equal parts art and science. Every mentor-mentee relationship is unique like the stripes of a zebra or the folds in a human fingerprint. Along your life journey,you’ll have the fortune of being with many different mentors and mentees. Some are fleeting; some are life-long. Yet, there are still general themes among these relationships. More specifically, I’ve observed three kinds of mentorships:

  • Peer,
  • Tactical,
  • And, Veteran.

Peer mentorship comes from someone who is facing a similar problem to you or has as much experience in a respective field as you do. A peer mentor will be down in the dirt with you, rolling in the mud. Together, you aim to learn how to navigate the complexity of the landscape.

Tactical mentorship comes from someone who has two to five years more experience than you in a field you want to grow in. He/she is someone who is able to able to see around the corner before you do. A tactical mentor can provide the nitty-gritty tactics to conquer many of your challenges. Most startup investors, who see a breadth of deals, but only experience some depth, tend to fall under this category.

Veteran mentorship comes from someone who has already attained the level of success that you hope to one day achieve in a given field. Veteran mentors can help you define your true north, providing both vision and scope. Unfortunately, because it’s been a few since they’ve tackled a similar scope of a problem, they won’t be able to provide the ABCs for you.

Magic and Mentorship

Like the Triwizard Maze, the world around us is always changing, posing new obstacles and surprising us with new challenges. Though not frequently, the variables and parameters for our success will always be changing. Our peer mentors, like Cedric Diggory, Fleur Delacour, and Viktor Krum, are our companions to conquer the seemingly impossible. Our tactical mentors, like those who have been chosen by the Goblet before, help us to make the right judgment at each crossroads. Our veteran mentors, like Mad-Eye and Dumbledore, are our lumos to see a bigger picture. All of them will help us find the signal in the noise. More importantly, are the supporting force that have, is, and will be pushing us forward towards our own Triwizard Cup.

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