A LETTER FROM CHRIS SUAREZ

PICK YOUR MENTORS

As I child I was pretty shy - to the point that I didn’t like to talk to strangers, engage with cashiers at the store, and was more content to be alone than with a group of people.

Obviously over time that changed, and as I grew up I realized that in order to make an impact in any industry or help others, I would need to step outside of what was comfortable or even my “natural” personality, and learn to adjust to my surroundings. That transition and transformation is a topic for a future blog, but today I’d like to talk about how that early personality provided at least one advantage.

Being as shy as I was, I certainly wasn’t the type of person to ask for help or ask other people questions. I was however naturally curious and so from an early age I found my answers on my own through reading. I didn’t have much money to buy books, the internet wasn’t nearly the source of information it is today, and so I was a regular at the library - any library.  From grade school through high school every librarian knew me. The staff at the public library knew me by my name. Even while at college, most of my time was spent in the library. I have always looked at reading as an opportunity to sit with someone for a period of time and learn from them, as if I was asking questions, and they were answering in written form.

It was fascinating to me that in effect, I could ask any question of any notable person and I could gather answers to those questions by the books that they wrote.

That list of possible mentors has only grown with the growth in popularity of biographies, founder-written books, historical compilations, and many books now being written by some of the brightest scientists, behavioral psychologists, therapists, researchers, and entrepreneurs.

As time has gone on, I have had the opportunity to be personally mentored by some incredible humans. Even with that, to this day, I pick my mentors by reading a book every week written by someone that I am certain I can learn something from. Writers take at minimum many months, and at times, decades of their life compiling their thoughts, findings, experiences, and research before ever transforming them into a book. I can synthesize decades or another human’s lifetime of learning in a handful of hours by reading a book.

If that isn’t the greatest time hack in the world, I don’t know what is. Each year, I put out the list of books I learned from over the course of the previous year.  This year, the list is a little smaller. I was a bit more selective, but I also decided to leave off some of the books that I had read this year from the published list. Some of them I decided not to finish. Some of them I didn’t find useful. Some of them I lost respect for the author or their message along the way. All of those things are fine by me. This year’s book list can be found here:   

https://www.xperiencechrissuarez.com/2023-reading-list

I often get asked by friends, “What books should I read this year?”  The short answer is, “I don’t know.”  We each should choose books based on what we are curious about, what topics are on our growth plan this year, which individuals we personally want to learn from, or what we are personally working on. After asking a person a few questions of course, I can usually recommend a book or two.  But my wish for everyone this year is that we read just a little bit more. We will learn just a little bit more. And we will be mentored just a little bit more.

After all, it’s pretty cool that you get to pick your mentors.

Chris Suarez