How to lift up others? Start with self-knowledge and self-belief.
Remembering a mentor of mine who championed generations of entrepreneurs.
A mentor and supporter of mine from my time at MIT Sloan passed away this week. It feels good to me to remember him here, while offering a learning, for your consideration.
Professor Ed Roberts was downright joyous about entrepreneurship.
He believed his students could start successful businesses (and they did!), and he brought his ideas, his connections, his loquaciousness, his passion, and his delight to every class and meeting.
He championed my desire to bring arts and tech together through my startup and through Hacking Arts, the hackathon I co-founded with my friend Catherine Halaby, which ran for seven years at the MIT Media Lab. And he championed MANY other MIT entrepreneurs, both directly and by founding the entrepreneurship center at MIT, believing that entrepreneurship is a skill that can be taught. His legacy is simply enormous – read more about him in an obituary here.
When I was at MIT Sloan, as his TA, and then after Sloan when he invested in my startup, I was astonished and grateful for his support and enthusiasm. But as I look back, 10 years out of Sloan and older and a bit wiser, I find it to be even more remarkable. How could he give so much time and deep attention to others?
I think, now, that he was able to because he was so very centered in himself. My words, not his – he would never have used the phrase “centered in.” But he was! He knew what he was about. He was clear on his values and passions. He was clear on what he expected from others for the maximum learning for all, down to meticulously critiquing and requesting revisions of visiting entrepreneurs’ slides before class.
Because he was settled in himself, he could give freely. When I sat with him in his office, discussing my ideas and ambitions, he didn’t need to place his agenda on top of mine. He simply listened, with bright eyes, and then offered stories and connections that he thought could be helpful.
So, a few questions for you –
Who do you champion? Who are you taking a stand for – in your community, in your work, within your family?
And consider, if you’d like to show up with even more strength, compassion, and enthusiasm for those people, how could you feel more settled in yourself right now? What questions do you have within yourself that are wanting answers right now?
I invite you to write back and let me know, if it would feel helpful!
Warmly,
Kathleen
p.s. Organizational psychologist Adam Grant actually wrote about giving freely in his Substack today too. “My help doesn’t come with strings attached,” he says. It’s a good read, here.