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Brick No75: The best role model any girl can have
By Matt Weston, Tuesday 22 June 2004 You've not accidentally opened an email from "Empire", "Total Film" or "Sight & Sound". I just want to go off-road for a minute, and talk about two Oscar acceptance speeches. (And after that, I'll talk about mentors.) First on the podium, it's Cher. She wowed the Academy voters in 1988 with her portrayal of an Italian bookkeeper in"Moonstruck". She thanked her hairdresser and her make-up man ("who had a lot to work with") . . . but forgot to mention any of her co-stars or the director. Weeks later she placed a three-page ad in Variety magazine to thank all those that she'd meant to thank. Jump forward 14 statues to 2002. This time Halle Berry won Best Actress for her role in"Monster's Ball". Quivering with emotion, she started: " I'm sorry. This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. " It's for the women that stand beside me: Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett. And it's for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened . . . " . . . I need to thank, lastly but not leastly I have to thank Spike Lee for putting me in my very first film and believing in me. " Oprah Winfrey for being the best role model any girl can have. Jo Silver, thank you and thank you to Warren Beatty. Thank you so much for being my mentors and believing in me. Thank you, thank you, thank you. " Her first name-check, Dorothy Dandridge, was the first black actress to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, alongside Audrey Hepburn, Judy Garland and Grace Kelly in 1955. But Dorothy Dandridge died in 1965 . . . the year before Halle Berry was born. Berry never met Dandridge, Lena Horne or Oprah Winfrey when she was growing up, but she still regarded them as her mentors. Another way to think about mentors Often your greatest influences - on a business or personal level - will be people you've never met, and are never likely to meet. I'm all for "face-to-face" mentors: we all need the benefit of detached, first-hand experience. Like I've said before, Emyr and I have a great guy who helps us with business bricks Ltd. He really opens doors, both to new contacts and new ways of thinking about the business. He's worth Wayne Rooney's weight in gold. (Broken metatarsal or not.) We were lucky. Our No1 choice was happy to get involved. But the feedback I've received from some of you suggests that's not always the case. Even with organisations like The Prince's Trust and Business Link ploughing more effort into mentoring projects, it's not easy to find someone with specialist knowledge who's willing to give you "face time". So let's widen our definition of "the mentor". Tom Peters, David Ogilvy, Seth Godin, Stephen Covey, the late Dale Carnegie . . . are all "mentors" to me, even if I've not met many of them "face-to-face". And all have influenced my business immeasurably. Credit where credit is due. Seth Godin's book "Permission Marketing" shaped the idea behind business bricks. As he puts it: "Focus on share of customer, not on market share." I got change from a tenner, but his advice was worth thousands. And if I choose, I can spend every evening next week taking advice from Tom Peters. I've already spent over 200 hours in his company: reading his 14 books, and scouring countless magazine columns and interviews. You get the gist. By getting hold of my mentors' books, reading their columns and attending their workshops, I get to re-think my business. I benefit from their unparalleled experience, without having to "sign them up". It's the same as Halle Berry watching her "mentors" on the silver screen. I bet she watched every film Dorothy Dandridge ever made, and every interview Oprah ever gave. Draw up a shortlist of entrepreneurs and writers you really admire. Give me some feedback: who makes your list? Read everything they've written or had written about them, exhaustively. Book in at their workshops. You will never make a better investment. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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