Have You Thanked Your Mentor Today?

We encounter thousands of people in life. I often say that, a year from now, we still would be as we are today, but for the information we read, the people we meet, and the people we help. Knowledge, wisdom and relationships help shape and define our careers and our lives.

Within the last few years, two people who were great mentors to me passed away. So often when death strikes, it causes us to reflect on our own lives and the lives of others around us. What I have learned is that, no matter where I have been in my professional journey, strong mentors have been keys to my success. I have been enriched by strong mentors who made me a better person and a better professional. It is through these amazing people that I have learned valuable lessons about business, life and family.

Most recently, the world lost a great man and a person that helped mentor me over the years. The death of Jim Mumford, former Iowa First Deputy Commissioner of Insurance, struck me pretty hard. Jim was a man of amazing character, wisdom and knowledge. He had a career that spanned nearly 50 years in the insurance business. Jim was the first insurance regulator I ever met and he took a strong interest in my development when I was not even 30 years old. We had frequent contact over the years. He was a man I admired, not only for his various positions of employment, but for his ability to treat people well and fairly. He cared deeply for both his own family and his extended work family, and he always worked to empower others around him.  

My career path has not been a straight road. Jim told me to treat my career like a strategic initiative and never stop learning. He expressed that it would be important to me to be more than a person of knowledge: I also should be a person of wisdom, and think ahead in terms of where I want my professional life to be at future points in my career.

When news of my appointment as commissioner became public in 2012, Jim was one of the first people to call me. We had a lunch meeting shortly thereafter where he made it clear that, even though he then was the First Deputy Commissioner, if I desired to hire someone else for the deputy position, he would fully support that. I told Jim that having a person of his intellect and experience was exactly what I needed and asked him to stay to help me transition. He was gracious enough to stay for two years and was a tremendous help to me.

Beginning a job like Insurance Commissioner, I was well aware that I did not know everything I needed to know for the job, and that Jim probably had forgotten more about insurance than I knew, so having him by my side was critical. He offered incredible advice. He did not worry about telling me only what I wanted to hear, but told me what I needed to hear. There were times when he would come into my office and sit down and just offer sage advice on how to handle stressful situations, media and other complex insurance matters we dealt with. His steady hand and advice helped me during some of the most stressful days I have experienced. Reflecting upon his death now, I am humbled to say I worked with Jim the last two years before he fully retired. This will certainly be one of the highlights of my career. Everyone at the Insurance Division misses him tremendously.

Right before I became Commissioner I lost another mentor. Wendy Waugaman was the reason I entered the insurance business. She took a chance on me at a time when I had no experience in the insurance industry. She was an incredible person with the most focused drive and determination I have ever encountered. She worked her way up to CEO of a publicly traded life insurance company I learned from Wendy so much about what is valuable: preparedness; rewarding and praising others; understanding that we need others to succeed; success may be based on doing what others will not do; working hard; focusing on goals and outcomes; and executing. She also engrained in me the idea that nothing is as important as hiring good people and letting them do their jobs.

I was fortunate that I saw Wendy a few days before her passing. During this encounter, after she asked how my wife and daughters were doing, she focused on my accomplishment of becoming the next insurance commissioner in Iowa. Even as she knew her time was limited, she cared about my future endeavors and offered me sage advice that I used to structure what I wanted to accomplish as commissioner. She believed in me and provided me amazing learning experiences that I treasure to this day, such as leading the company efforts during the SEC 151A battle. The breadth of experience and learning Wendy provided me during our time together helped prepare me for all my future endeavors.

I am thankful for people like Wendy and Jim. Without their help and belief in me I would be neither who I am today nor where I am today. So often we reflect on the people that matter to us when they are gone. We take it for granted that people will be there the next time we need them. We truly do not know when or if we will see someone again. Therefore, I suggest we all take the time, not only to develop a mentor relationship with someone that adds value to our careers and personal lives, but also to make sure they understand how important they are to us. Even better, we should take the time to be a mentor, helping to develop someone else, because the work we put into developing another person actually is more rewarding and also pays extreme dividends personally.

Many of the ideas I have brought to this position are a reflection of what Wendy taught me and what Jim later helped me execute. It is an amazing thing to have people in your life that walk your professional journey with you. I hope to foster more mentors for myself but, more important, I hope to pay it forward to others looking to advance in their professional endeavors.