We're Not Mozart and Mentorship is Important

“Maybe the greatest gift Sid Sheinberg ever gave me was the moral urge to be a mentor.” - Steven Spielberg

So, a couple of days ago, Guy Spier posted about declining a “plea for mentorship.” His response was Charlie Munger’s “Young Man Visits Mozart” story (I posted the video here).

“Mozart,” he says, “I want to write symphonies”.

And Mozart says, “How old are you?”

The man replies; “I’m 23.” And Mozart says, “You’re too young to write symphonies.”

The man replies: “But Mozart you were writing symphonies when you were 10 years old.”

“Yes, but I wasn’t asking other people how to do it.”

Unfortunately, the story misses the point (I wrote about it years ago in Thinking About the Next Warren Buffet). This was Munger’s answer to the question “How do I become a billionaire, like you, but faster?” That’s not asking for mentorship but for a shortcut.

And it wasn’t how Buffett and Munger answered a question about finding an investing mentor in 1998 (unfortunately, they didn’t get into it either).

More importantly, Mozart may have been a wunderkind, but the rest of us are not. Investing is at its heart an apprenticeship business (Kyle Harrison just wrote about that) and while it’s possible to hack your way in, as Michael Burry did, mentorship is a common thread among successful investors.

Druckenmiller was mentored by his first boss and later George Soros. Paul Tudor Jones was mentored by cotton trader Eli Tullis. Seth Klarman learned from Max Heine and Michael Price. Sam Zell and Ron Baron talked about Jay Pritzker.

Mark Leonard of Constellation Software began his career “very tech-oriented, very much into science” but recalled his “most important mentor” taught him to focus on business models and quality. Leonard revisited his venture firm’s deals and found a sweet spot in niche vertical software companies. (Sadly that interview has been taken down — the mentor was Steve Scotchmer.)

“If you're early on in your career and they give you a choice between a great mentor or higher pay,” Stanley Druckenmiller said, “take the mentor every time. It's not even close.”

Buffett understood the value of a great mentor as well as anybody. After studying under Ben Graham, he offered to work for his idol for free. He was rebuffed and moved back to Omaha yet kept trying. From The Snowball:

For two years, Warren had kept corresponding with Ben Graham. He suggested stock ideas like Greif Bros. Cooperage, a company he and his father had bought for their partnership. He traveled to New York periodically and dropped in on Graham-Newman.

“I would always try to see Mr. Graham.”

Surely it wasn’t typical for former students to hang about at Graham-Newman.

“No, well, I was persistent.”

By the time the local Republican Party slammed the door to the Senate nomination in his father’s face, Warren was already on his way to New York. “Ben wrote and said, ‘Come on back.’ His partner, Jerry Newman, explained it by saying, ‘You know, we just checked you out a little further.’ I felt I’d struck the mother lode.” Whether he would accept the position was never in question.

Warren was so excited about being hired that he arrived in New York on August 1, 1954, and showed up at his new job at Graham-Newman on August 2, a month before his official starting date.

He was so excited to work for Graham that he arrived at work a month early.

Having some kind of mentor or benefactor is one of the patterns identified by the authors of From Predators to Icons (see How Fortunes Are Made). The benefits include access to knowledge, capital, opportunities, and networks. Where would Bernard Arnault be without Antoine Bernheim of Lazard who opened doors and helped with capital for Arnault’s first takeover? Having a mentor is a personal competitive advantage.

Byron Wien observed two categories of mentors:

There are those you work with every day who are continuously guiding you to improved performance.

The second type of mentor is one whom you see intermittently. These individuals provide guidance because of who they are and what they do.

Some firms are all about selecting and developing talent. They create tightly-knit ‘mafia’ alumni networks — think Tiger, Goldman, McKinsey. If you’re not at a firm where mentorship is part of the culture, or if you’re trying to break into a different field, it’s only rational to look for the second kind.

But what about the mentor’s perspective? Why would they agree to invest their time and energy?

This seems to have been Spier’s concern. His answer was to “do the work. On your own. Like Mozart did. … And then show me some of your work: A stock write-up. A book review. Something else you have written. A video you made.”

And that’s a fair point. If you’re asking for mentorship, demonstrate that you’re a worthy long-term investment. Showcase curiosity and passion. Show up with your best thoughts and ideas. Better yet, share them online and earn the chance of attracting a mentor.

Even so, there may not be enough time to mentor someone outside the firm.

I used to think Twitter and Zoom made it easier to connect and develop such relationships, but the trade-off is that people are busier, more distracted, and wary of spam. It would be a shame if mentoring went out of fashion — for both mentees and mentors. Engaging with ambitious and curious young minds can be inspiring and a source of energy, not to mention insights into trends in technology and culture. Investing is a game of information, ideas, and access. If you play the game for the long haul, it pays to invest in the next generation.

But the real value of mentoring is the same as that of building any deep relationship: it’s a source of meaning and happiness.

“When your children are grown or if you have no children, always find someone younger to mentor,” Byron Wien wrote in his wonderful 20 Life Lessons. “It is very satisfying to help someone steer through life’s obstacles, and you’ll be surprised at how much you will learn in the process.”

If you’re looking for a mentor, don’t ask how to write symphonies. Instead, demonstrate enthusiasm and curiosity.

The best way to get a mentor is to deserve one. Real talent is always in short supply and a great mentor would be a fool to let it pass by.

— Frederik

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👉For those of you early in your careers, I’d be curious what your experience with mentorship has been — have working from home and job hopping killed it? Drop a note in the comments.

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Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash