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Honoring the mentors who help people grow

OK. Put down the HDTV-DVR remote, stop trying to make that perfect iPod playlist, ignore the latest in the Paris Hilton and Michael Vick melodramas and go see "Tuesdays With Morrie."

It could change your life.

Actually, you can’t see "Tuesdays With Morrie" until it runs from Sept. 21 to Nov. 28 at the Sonoma County Repertory Theater in Sebastopol.

But the reasons to see it are timeless: Yes, success in life or business is important, but at what cost? You see, Morrie teaches us the most important things in life are, yes, success, but also love, personal values, family, faith, honesty, happiness, balance and giving back.

In other words, within Morrie’s deathbed conversations with his former-student-turned-hard-driving-sports-writer are thought-provoking lessons about what is important and what is not. And one of the most important lessons is about the role mentors like Morrie play in life and in companies.

That final lesson led to a collaboration between the BUSINESS JOURNAL and the Repertory Theater to honor mentors in Sonoma County. A special publication on Sept. 17 will announce the mentors who were selected to be honored.

The goal of the project was straightforward: to honor mentorship and the role it plays in successful companies and organizations.

For many of America’s most successful companies, formal mentoring programs are put into place to coach up-and-coming employees. It could be a short comment on how a presentation went. Or it could be long conversations about how the kids are doing in school.

Whether it is a formal program or something ingrained into company culture, the purpose of mentoring is to help employees mature and grow. And when they do, they become forever loyal to their co-workers and their companies.

In "Tuesdays With Morrie," the narrator Mitch Albom is a hard-driving journalist whose priorities have gotten out of whack.

He is so obsessed with work and the travel it requires that he’s seldom home to be with his wife. He has not fulfilled his promise to her to start a family.

Mitch’s connection with Morrie dates back to his college days at Brandeis University. Morrie was his sociology teacher, and the two had developed a deep bond.

Years pass after graduation, and Mitch has not kept in touch with Morrie as he had promised. Then one day, Mitch sees Morrie on TV telling Ted Koppel that he was dying of ALS. That is the start of the Tuesday visits.

In their Tuesday talks, like those of mentors everywhere, Morrie encourages Mitch to value others, to always be ethical and to reject the narcissism of media-driven popular culture. A solid internal compass will lead to personal and professional fulfillment.

These values are as important inside companies as they are in personal life. In fact, business can be the antidote for the crudeness of much of our current pop culture.

Look closely inside a successful company today and one is likely to witness a sense of family and shared values passed from the top down.

Mentors help make that happen, and their impact will only increase as the work force becomes more diverse. Mentors are particularly critical to promote the success of women and minorities in companies.

On that, Morrie certainly would agree.