What It Feels Like When Your Mentee Becomes a Star

In this series, professionals thank those who helped them reach where they are today. Read the posts here, then write your own. Use #ThankYourMentor and @mention your mentor when sharing.

I’m flattered that Julia Boorstin considers me to be a mentor. She has become such a rock star, and of course all of that is her own doing. We did have some fun back in the day to be sure.

I remember hiring Julia straight out of Princeton (I used to ask her if she knew the tune "Funky Nassau"), where I think she had written for the school’s literary magazine. So she was either going to try be the next Joyce Carol Oates, or the next Carol Loomis. Julia chose the latter. As she acknowledges — and like most of us at that stage in life — she had a steep learning curve. But Julia was game. Very game. She was smart, hard working and figured things out very quickly. Julia wanted to make it all work, and she did. She was as upbeat then as she is today — and yes what you see on CNBC is pretty much her real personality. She almost always has that friendly yet quizzical — and maybe even a bit ironic — smile pasted on her face. 

I remember one time Julia’s mom came to Fortune to check up on her. “That’s my baby,” Mom informed me. I acknowledged as much and then gently showed her to the elevator. "Your baby" will be fine, I told her. And she was! 

Julia is spot on when she says we worked on a number of fun stories, like the exclusive piece on Ben Affleck’s and Matt Damon’s “Project Greenlight.” While I was working on that story I met Dave Goldberg, the late husband of Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. When Dave tragically passed away earlier this year, I happened to mention the Greenlight story to WME co-CEO Patrick Whitesell and told him that Julia was the reporter on the piece with me. It reminded me that important and meaningful moments in your career can come at any time, and you build on that. You need to always be ready and open, and I think Julia always had those qualities. She has built and continues to build a bank of knowledge and experience, which are reflected in the excellent work she is doing every day. 

I recall when Julia first went on television a bit differently than she does though.

The way I remember it was somewhat akin to the story of Wally Pipp and Lou Gehrig. You know that one, right? Wally Pipp was the New York Yankees starting first baseman in the 1925 season and was having a tough time of it. On June 2, Pipp was replaced in the starting lineup by a young, little-known ballplayer named Lou Gehrig. Pipp never got back in the starting lineup, while Gehrig would go on to play 2,130 consecutive games and become a sports legend.

In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m the Wally Pipp, and Julia’s the Lou Gehrig. In other words, after she went on a few times, the network was calling her name, not mine. I read somewhere that Pipp was a mentor to Gehrig. I just hope Wally was as happy to see Lou succeed, as I am to see Julia do so.

It always makes me feel great to see Julia explaining some important tech or media story on CNBC. She is really hitting her stride, and I expect even more out of her over the coming years. Keep on rockin’, J’Bo!