Why I Still Don’t Have a Career Mentor, up until very recently — And Why That’s Okay
Almost 10 years ago, I was in an interview when the hiring manager asked me a question I still think about: “Do you have a mentor in your career? And why did you choose that person?” My answer was simple and probably unexpected:
“I haven’t found a mentor yet. Maybe because I haven’t come across someone who represents the version of myself I want to be in the next 10 years—as a director, a lead, or even a Chief Digital Officer.” It wasn’t that I didn’t want a mentor. I just hadn’t met someone whose path looked like mine, or where I wanted to go. I didn’t want to follow someone else’s career. I was still figuring out what mine looked like.
Then I turned the question around.
Later in the interview, it was my turn to ask something. And I only had one question—kind of an odd one for an interview, but it came out naturally: “What made you stay here for the past 2 years?” His answer stuck with me:
“I’m content with my life, from what I eat to what I wear to where I go to where I live.” And that hit me. Truth be told, I didn’t know the meaning of the word ‘content’, until I came out of the interview room and Googled it the next minute.
Content: in a state of peaceful happiness – that’s what Google said.
It felt oddly familiar, but I hadn’t fully understood it until that moment. Interestingly, as a Buddhist, I should know this as this is lesson 101. But still, it hadn’t hit me—not really. Not in a way I could feel in my own life. I kept thinking about that word for a long time. A really long time. And then, in 2020—five years and two months after that interview, during the same month as my birthday—it finally sank in.
Why am I writing this blog?
Honestly, because I know I’ll forget. Not the dates or the events, but the stuff that matters. The feelings. The shifts. The way certain things hit me at the time. I’m writing it down so I don’t keep it all in my head, because when I do, it just sits there and drains energy. Quietly. Constantly. And maybe more than that, I’m writing this to remind myself what it means to be content. It took me years to actually grasp it—not just the word, but what it feels like. So yeah, this is me putting it into words. For myself, first. And if it helps someone else along the way, even better.
“The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking a pipe.”
Industrialist: Why aren’t you fishing?
Fisherman: Because I have caught enough fish for the day.
Industrialist: Why don’t you catch some more?
Fisherman: What would I do with them?
Industrialist: Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. That would bring you money to buy nylon nets—so more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats, even a fleet of boats. Then you could be rich like me.
Fisherman: What would I do then?
Industrialist: Then you could sit back and enjoy life.
Fisherman: What do you think I’m doing now?
This story has always stayed with me. I come back to it often—especially when I start looking outward for something more, something that feels like it should be missing. But every time I read it, it reminds me: I already have enough.
Since mid-2020, I’ve been able to feel that word—content—not just understand it. I’ve lived it. In what I eat, what I wear, and how I show up every day. But more than anything, I’m content with the choices I make. Not because they’re always right or certain, but because they’re mine. And I’m learning to trust them.
That’s what this has been about. Learning to be okay without a mentor. Learning to be okay not having it all figured out. Learning that enough doesn’t mean settling—it means arriving.
#Blog01 #Content #Enough
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