Mentors

Original Post from September 18, 2012 – Thought it was time to repost…

A mentor is an important thing to have.

Everyone needs one, even a mentor should have a mentor. Sometimes they are assigned, sometimes you have to seek one out. Other times you come to a realization that you’ve had one for a while and didn’t even know it.

I had seen Dave Steffenhagen at a few roundtables I had attended. I had never been introduced, but had heard that he was a ‘good guy’. So when he made a pitch one day for a cold weather camping course, I was interested and took a flyer from him. Eventually I signed up for the course, called OKPIK, and found that he was taking the course at the same time and place. Even though we took the same course, we never exchanged more than a hello, or a passing “hey” as we both headed in our own direction.

During the course, we both happened to attend our District Recognition Dinner. I was feeling proud that I had made it back in time from the OKPIK session (still in my outdoor gear) and was on hand to get my Unit Recognition that Blair Piotrowski was giving me. After that, and after dinner, it was the main event – the big award – the District Award of Merit.

Dave was a recipient.

Listening the presenter go through the list of scouting and life accomplishments that had brought Dave to receive the award was staggering. Any sense of vanity I had was quickly swept away in shame as I heard program after program Dave had taken part in and the things he had accomplished.

He already had a legacy. I have wanted, ever since that moment, to be that kind of person.

I didn’t get to know Dave until a few months later when he approached me to be on staff for Blackhawk’s first OKPIK course. Dave was the course director, or “the boss”. After a couple of meetings, I got the call that both shocked me, and lifted me up all at the same time – Dave called me to see if I would accept the Senior Patrol Leader position on his course. I was embarrassed at first, since there were so many other more experienced scouters he could have asked.
(And in retrospect, maybe he did ask and I was the only one crazy enough to say yes).

After I hung up, began wondering how I, a scouter with only 2 years experience, was going to not let down this seasoned and experienced leader.

Dave leads by example – always professional, always prepared. He listened to my ideas, guided me and was able to get me to do more than I would have ever thought I could have. By the end of the first course, I knew, with absolute certainty, that I could run any scouting course – especially the one we were on. That was Dave’s gift to me – knowing that when I emulated him, I was getting stuff done, effectively.

When you know someone believes in you – they know that you have something in you that you may not know yourself – and they show you the right way by example – you have a mentor. They always have an idea to plant in your ear – not the whole plan – just the seed to get you going… The encouragement that lifts you up is like a cool blast of fresh air – pushing you on, without an agenda, other than your success.

After two years of SPL for OKPIK, I am worried again – I’ve been tapped to take over for Dave as course director. I’m nervous, and unsure. But it’s ok, my mentor already knows this – he sent me a text today, and he wants to have breakfast tomorrow.

My mentor’s name is Dave.

Vision + Action = Impact

Having a vision is good – it’s essential to moving anything forward. Vision can create, build and inspire.

Scouting America (Boy Scouts of America) has long been a beacon of personal development, leadership, and community service. At the heart of its mission is a clear vision: to prepare young people to make ethical and moral decisions throughout their lives. This vision doesn’t just shape the program’s structure but plays a crucial role in the lives of the scouts themselves. A well-realized vision can transform not only the organization but also the lives of the youth it serves.

Vision can be big, sweeping and global – and these are great, but not all visions need to impact the entire world. Smaller visions can be just as impactful, if not more-so to an individual scout.

People with vision are essential, but people who bring vision to realization are the ones that make vision have impact.

One vision realized is the axe yard at Camp Lowden, Blackhawk Area Council in Oregon, IL. Conceived on an unused patch of ground off the main parking lot, the implementation of this vision will serve and impact youth for decades to come. But the vision was not enough. It was key leaders like Bob Gingras and Jerry Coots that rallied volunteers, drew up concepts, found the needed resources and GOT IT BUILT. Without action, this vision would have remained only a dream.

Vision + Action = Impact

So thank you to the volunteers that brought this vision to life, so these scouts could learn and grow on a chilly Saturday morning in March.

Instant Change

Flight 93 National Memorial
6424 Lincoln Highway
Stoystown, PA 15563

My oldest son, Jack, and I just returned from a short trip to Pennsylvania.  Along the way home we realized how close we were to the Flight 93 National Memorial, and since the government didn’t shut down the other day, we decided to go.  I was struck by how a place can be so incredibly beautiful and simultaneously solemn.  Its importance is significant to honor those lost, but equally important to be a reminder of how the world can instantly change.

I’ve had some instant change in my life recently… and it hit me immediately that there was a parallel.  Now, please know I realize how insignificant my personal change is in comparison to the loss of 9/11, and I mean no disrespect… my change is a single drop of water in an entire ocean of grief.  But like all things we try to understand, it made me think a little differently than I had been this past month.

Change is hard when it is slow, but harder still when it is unexpected… On 9/11, I had no idea how much the world hated us.  It was the shock of realizing that I was insulated from what was real and now I was forced to deal with a new reality that was forever unchangeable.  I couldn’t wish things to go back to the way they were, it was a new world, even if I didn’t like it.

What came after was learning to adapt… we all had to adapt.  That was true then and it’s true again for me now.  There is no going back, now I can only to assess what has happened, learn from it and continue to influence those who are in the same orbit I’m in.  Going forward is really the only real option, as a nation and as a person… 

Our country has dedicated itself to improving our ability to see what is real, identify threats, mitigate risk and plan to protect itself.  I need to do the same… rebuild my resiliency, plan to get stronger and protect what is important at all costs.  Remembering is a key, not to languish but to heal and honor what was, and the Flight 93 National Memorial site is an elegant reminder that if we try, we can move forward with dignity and become stronger.

My original plan with this blog was to start out on a new journey, and I took a bit of a detour for too long.  The good news is I made more progress than I had ever planned.  The time is now to refocus, reeducate, and continue to build for a future… time to grow.  I don’t wish for a different past, to get in a Time Machine and go back to a specific moment and get a do-over… Because growth comes from the experience, and I think the experience was, in the end, essential.

9/11 knocked us down, but we came back.  2024 has done its best to beat me with all of its instant changes in my life… but my response back to 2024 is, screw you.  I win.

Progress & Hate

I am wearing a watch on my wrist that shows me time, temp (high and low temps), wind speed, how many steps I’ve taken, sunrise & sunset, Doppler radar, forecast, stock prices, calendar, photos, and many, many more capabilities.  This watch is a marvel of technology and progress – I have more information than I could ever need, and I get a sense of fulfillment that I have all this information at my disposal with no waiting.  In fact I start to “hate” when I don’t have the watch on, because I get frustrated I can’t see my dual-polarization radar in 2 seconds.  More progress and capability has made me a more impatient and pampered person, one who misses having what I want, when I want it.

We all want what we want, right.  I want my comfort, my son to be the champ, my daughter to be the student council President, my ideas about guns, my God, my President, my ideas on what the Boys Scouts should do…my, my, my…

And if you don’t see things that way, it’s ok for me to HATE you, and for you to FEEL that hate.

And transmitting that hate is so much easier now, isn’t it?  Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, 455 Channels on TV – all accessible, all the time and ALL available now on my wrist…

Not sure all that this progress has really done is make it easier to transmit hate, faster and farther…