The Upside of Mentoring

When I first started helping fellow inventors way back in 2010, it was a way to say thank you to the 2 million Australians who shared their Monday and Saturday nights with me to watch the Australian Story episode covering our win against Microsoft in that year.

Spending Friday mornings, listening to fellow inventors, trying to help them get going and maybe get a patent was a little way of saying thank you to the rest of Australia who shared their support and time.

But something weird also started to happen. By about the 40th person I started to really deeply understand the inventing process. Not because I studied it, but because in explaining something you have to think deeply about it, and next thing you know many of the things that I just did out of repetition started to make so much more sense.

Its's almost as if, when you really want to understand something, you make an effort to help others understand it and voila you really do start to become an expert at it.

Unfortunately I've had some health problems of late so my mentoring has been curtailed to a degree but I almost feel guilty looking back just how valuable the experience has been for me...  maybe I should try some new subjects beyond inventing... like cooking! or gardening... nah. Only joking.

BTW. If you go to the Australian story site on your mobile you wont be able to watch the video because it uses Adobe Flash to play. You will need to go to it on your Mac or PC to have a look at the video again if you are up for it.