Mentors: Legacies and Letting Go

(Also on Medium)

Legacy isn’t about personal achievement, it’s about what you pass on. The best leaders don’t hold onto power, they create space for others to rise. The best mentors don’t just teach skills, they prepare people to take the reins, then step back and let them lead.?

A lot of fictional mentorship follows a familiar arc: the mentor dies, and the mentee is forced to step up (Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Lion King). It’s a great narrative device, but real life mentorship rarely works that way. Growth doesn’t have to be triggered by loss, and great mentors don’t need to vanish for their lessons to take root.

Instead of revisiting the usual examples, which make for such great stories, I wanted to look at two that feel a little more true to life, A League of Their Own and Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Both stories give us mentors who are there. They don’t disappear at the crucial moment, leaving their mentees to figure it out alone. They guide, challenge, and, most importantly, they know when to let go. And both stories are ones I avidly watched as a teenager and adult and bring a smile to my face on recollecting the specific mentors I have picked here.??

A League of Their Own and The Rockford Peaches

A League of Their Own (1992) is a sports drama about the real life All-American Girls professional baseball league, formed during World War II when male baseball players were off at war. It follows the Rockford Peaches, a women’s team fighting to be taken seriously.

Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) is their coach, and when we meet him, he’s not exactly mentor material, he’s a washed-up, alcoholic former baseball star who barely tolerates the job. But as he watches the Peaches play, he starts to see their talent and drive. This is when there is avid sexism and scorn on women’s sport (oh wait… ).?

What makes Jimmy’s mentorship compelling is that it’s not about him. He doesn’t turn them into copies of himself. He doesn’t make it about proving he still has value. He invests in them, sharpens their skills, holds them to a high standard, and then lets them run with it. By the end, the Peaches don’t need him anymore. That’s the whole point.

Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Redemption of Zuko

Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender (the animated series please, all others that follow are weaker shades) is set in a world where people can manipulate the elements: water, earth, fire, and air. The Fire Nation has thrown the world into war, and Prince Zuko, the exiled son of Fire Lord Ozai, is obsessed with capturing the Avatar, believing it’s the only way to restore his honour.

Alongside him is his uncle, General Iroh, a former Fire Nation general who could have been Fire Lord himself. But Iroh has seen enough war and loss to know power isn’t everything. He sees in Zuko what others don’t, that he’s more than his anger, that he’s capable of being better.

Iroh doesn’t force the lesson. He offers wisdom, challenges Zuko’s worldview, and lets him make his own choices, even the wrong ones. Even when Zuko betrays him, Iroh’s response isn’t anger, it’s patience. And when Zuko finally understands who he is meant to be, Iroh doesn’t hand him the answers, he simply says, “You are the one who has to make this decision.”

Iroh’s brand of mentorship, no ego, no control, just unwavering belief in someone’s potential.

1. The Best Mentors See Potential Before Others Do

Jimmy Dugan doesn’t take women’s baseball seriously at first. But as he watches the Peaches play, he sees something others dismiss, their talent, their hunger to win, their ability to compete at the highest level. What starts as a paycheck gig turns into real investment.

Iroh sees something in Zuko that no one else does. While everyone, including Zuko himself, sees an angry, lost prince, Iroh sees someone capable of leading with wisdom instead of rage. He trains him, yes, but more than that, he gives him the space to become someone better.

Many mentors don’t set out to be mentors. They might not even see themselves that way. Jimmy Dugan wasn’t hired to teach leadership, but his influence gave the Peaches the confidence and discipline to succeed far beyond that one season. Iroh didn’t train Zuko to rule, he just helped him become the kind of person who could. Some mentors are incidental, they show up at the right time, offer wisdom or guidance in passing, and change someone’s path forever.

2. Mentors Guide, But the Journey Belongs to the Mentee

A mentor’s job isn’t to control outcomes, it’s to prepare people to make their own decisions.

Jimmy Dugan is tough on the Peaches, but when key players like Dottie have to make difficult personal choices, he doesn’t interfere. He respects that their path is theirs to walk.

Iroh never forces Zuko to change. He advises, challenges, and waits for him to come to his own realisations, even when those realisations take a long time.

This is where true mentorship leaves its mark. The best mentors create future mentors: people who pass on the same wisdom and space for growth that they once received. The Rockford Peaches don’t just play baseball, they go on to inspire future generations of female athletes. Zuko doesn’t just redeem himself, he becomes the one offering guidance to the next Avatar. The cycle continues.

3. Letting Go: The Hardest and Most Crucial Step

The best mentors know when to step back.

By the time the season ends, the Rockford Peaches have become a team that doesn’t need Jimmy anymore. And that’s exactly how it should be. His job wasn’t to make them dependent on him, it was to prepare them to succeed on their own.

Iroh’s greatest act of mentorship is stepping aside. He never claims credit for Zuko’s transformation, never insists on holding influence over him. When Zuko finally embraces his destiny, Iroh simply smiles and lets him go.

The sign of a great mentor isn’t just how many people they teach, but how many future mentors they leave behind.

End Credits: The Ripple Effect of Great Mentorship

The best mentors don’t create followers, they create future leaders and future mentors.

Many of the strongest mentors aren’t even formal teachers. They’re the people who, in small moments, shift someone’s direction without even realising it. Sometimes, the best mentorship happens without the mentor ever knowing their impact.

And when the cycle continues, mentorship is about developing future mentors.

Thank you Aoife Byrne and Ameesha Mittal for the chat and inspiration over the decluttering weekend, and Nanako Yamagishi for a totally different chat on mentors, and this post is a nod to all of you creating ripple effects.?

Post-Credits Scene: Breaking the Fourth Wall Like Ferris Bueller

Wait, you’re still here?

You got the wisdom, the life lessons, the letting go. But now it’s your turn.

So, what about you?

• Who has been your Iroh or Jimmy Dugan in life?
• Have you ever had an Ozai, a so-called mentor who tried to mould you rather than empower you?
• Are you preparing to pass the torch, whether as a mentor, a leader, or just a solid teammate?
• What kind of legacy are you building, not just for yourself, but for those who will come after you?

Go on, reflect, take action... or maybe watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. That’s what he’d tell you to do.

(I am channeling Ferris Bueller and adding a new section to? Nuggets from Narratives Culture , who broke the fourth wall and has since inspired so many following narratives on the screen!)

About Nuggets from Narrative Culture

Nuggets from Narrative Culture is my way of sharing the cool ideas and life lessons I find in the stories I love ; whether it’s a movie, TV show, book, anime, or comic. For me, consuming stories isn’t just about entertainment; it’s about sparking curiosity and expanding the way I see the world. Stories inspire me, challenge me, and help me grow.

Through a series of posts, I’ll take you on a journey into narrative culture , a fancy way of saying “the stories we create and share.” I’ll pull out lessons, insights, and takeaways you can use in your own life. Whether it’s a thought-provoking line, a character’s growth, or a moment that shifts your perspective, Nuggets from Narrative Culture is about finding meaning in the stories that spark our imagination.