Grey (matter) is the new black should you be looking to define your mark in a world wallowing in the happy shallows.
 
The revelation of our time, that our cerebral stuff isn’t sculpted and set early, but bendy and plastic throughout our lives, has opened a new realm of ways to stretch our brain cells out of the grasp of entropy.
 
There are a host of chemical hacks, from psychiatric drugs like Ritalin or Xanax, to street drugs that can force the brain to comply, buttressing the enhancement for as long as they’re taken. But the effects fade or leave the brain hobbled when they’re no longer ingested.
 
There are and will be ever more ingenious brain implant technologies that will change the lives of those bereft of standard functions like sight; and enhance the capabilities of those who dare to go transhuman with a bit of surgery and maybe clock up a super.sense or two.
 
In an embarrassingly old-fashioned position, neither the pharmaceutically-tamed, brain-steroid hack, nor surgical enhancement inspires me the way a naturally brilliant mind seems to.* Just as temporarily performance.enhanced athletes or spectacular silicon.moulded humans don’t delight in the same way either – by personal preference, not dogma.
 
Outpacing the limits of the expected with active effort can reshape our genes, and our evolutionary path as a species. Progress that we have to buy in and retrofit - rather than finding new ways to discover what the core functionality we shipped with can do and make it more robust – seems to render us humans even more vulnerable to staying within a narrowing band of existence. Even now so many of us perch precariously at the mercy of the Internet staying up and oil flowing from the wells.
 

As sexy and immediate as the quick fixes are, the results from natural brain tweaks, exercise, nutrition, learning and play can compete – with maybe a dash of determination & discipline - and win the long game. For those unafraid, I proffer the gatherings of the Brain Grower’s Association to accelerate organic, sustainable development of the cranial contents ..
 
(update: the site’s closed at the mo, but it will be up after I’ve wrapped up writing the book that is devouring my time like a failed dieter). Ping me here if you’re annoyed about it.

* [in those who have regular brain function.. but an incredible blessing of science for those who don't]

..

26 Mentors have stepped up to contribute to this special programme, and I’ll introduce them as the as the journey progresses, because they deserve to be recognised. Each chosen for their particular approach to bridging business and creativity.

..

For the reason that I don’t think too many of us get the opportunity to create a mentorship program¹, I’ll share some of my thoughts, maybe it’ll spark interest about creating one for your organisation/class/local good cause/ ..or yourself.

..

8 Ideas on Modern Mentorship:

As a mentor:

1. You don’t have all the answers. There was a time when it was feasible that we could predict (with fair accuracy) how the world will operate in the years to come. That time is not now. Share skills, show the hidden paths you’ve discovered – but know that we aren’t in the certainty of our parent’s world. Our job is to inspire greatness.

Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity -General Patton

2. Stories are the best way to learn from someone else’s experience. It’s a quirk of the human brain – music and stories have the sticky stuff. We remember and pass on case-studies, parables, gossip, jingles. Embed big lessons (softly) in captivating true tales of luck, calamity, humour ..and let it unpack later as an aha! Be a great storyteller (the once and future king of all leadership skills)
3. Monoculture is bad, and not just in agriculture. Leave the cloning to the gene-splicing engineers, mentorship is not about sculpting someone into your likeness. Our job is to spot what makes our charge special, draw out what was dumbed down to ‘fit in’. Genius is rarely safe and orderly.

As a mentee (horrible word, but it gets the consensual nod over apprentice):

1. ASK. Most of us far too polite to ask for anything that may inconvenience anyone else (PLEASE do yourself a favour and refresh yourself on Stanley Milgram’s subway experiment). Oh yes, also grab a copy of Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational², and read the chapter on social norms vs market norms. It WILL do your head in about what we assume about money and work.
2. That said, the kryptonite to a mentoring relationship is.. asking too much. Take a quick peek at Tim Ferriss’ post on getting this contact right. Entitlement is creepy. Demanding meetings to discuss the Next Big Thing ( still in idea.ware format and prefaced with the ubiquitous NDA), the assault of thick book manuscripts, lifeless CV’s and half.baked business plans to be analysed is something many people in high-profile positions get pelted with daily – witness any Branson gig! Stand out, offer something that would be of value to your would.be mentor (not the great opportunity to buy in now!)
3. You’re never too old or too successful to get a mentor. Brain plasticity³ is an invitation to free.choice learning. Go borrow someone else’s brilliance >>

I think you should profit from the mistakes of others. You don’t live long enough to make them all yourself.” – Lowell Ferguson

As a mentorship curator:

1. This isn’t your average mentorsheep program, so I needed to hunt for mentors who can look around the corner, not just behind them to point paths to success. Many high profile mentors who have forged their success in the world as it was. Globalization, the web, mobile, resource-strain – have rapidly forced us into new work for a new kind of world.. and so we need new kinds of guides.
2. Use fresh tools. It wouldn’t be much of a pioneering program if we didn’t experiment with the different channels that make up our blended.reality⁴. Challenge the idea that mentorship should be bound to 1 hour coffee meetings. The web is teeming with wonderful tools to enhance communication and inspire creativity (struck with tech.terror? ..hunt a mentor to help you learn, of course).

1. Yes, I have been watching Star Wars again in celebration of some of the most famed sequences of masters and apprentices (or padawan). We have very few powerful formal institutions or guilds left that require the mentor/apprentice model that demands that we face a great trial (no, end of year exams don’t qualify) to prove our mastery before entering our profession ..and maybe we’re collectively paying the price for that (but mercifully, I’ll save that discussion for another day!)
2. there’s an audio extract at the bottom of this page link if you’re living 3 weeks from a bookstore
3. your brain isn’t just doomed to entropy with the best wasted on your youth – IF you exercise it. Challenging learning = new neural connections, fresh brain cells and a cranked up IQ whatever your age
4. Our digital home base will be a custom social network from which we’ll begin the journey tomorrow night.. I’ll report back on what works

Back for its 3rd year: BUSINESS ACUMEN for ARTISTS

It’s a dream.manifest of Director of UCT’s GSB Executive Education, Elaine Rumboll, also a published poet and blues.singer, who realised that her fluency with business, negotiation and marketing was an exception among artists. She developed the rich curriculum for Business Acumen for Artists, lobbied to have this needed programme subsidized, and launched with some of the school’s finest minds offering their time on the faculty.

THE BENEFITS

It offers that blessing of breathing.room -when you thought you have to give up on your dreams and do some #*!!ing desk job to make it by in a recession- and the astounding stories of success born of Business Acumen for Artists backs this up. Whether by learning the language of business, dealing with money, the quality of teaching, mentorship or camraderie; something in those 13 weeks changes the future of those writers, photographers, filmmakers, musicians, artists, designers for good.

THE FEATURES

• An on-campus, THIRTEEN week programme at one of the world’s most innovative and prestigious executive education units.
• An immersive and PRACTICAL business practices course – finances, administration, marketing, negotiation made relevant and simple enough for artists to run singlehandedly.
• You’ll be introduced to the freshest evidence.based understandings of how business works today – not your average juice.less abstract theory taught by people who’ve never stepped beyond the safety of academia.
• Dave Duarte is on the faculty. Don’t know Dave? Worth coming for this session alone to have your perspectives scooped one level up. Between illuminating governments, corporate leadership, MBAs, he’ll be leading the marketing sessions  -  opening online opportunities to creatives, that even their fertile minds couldn’t have imagined -
• 6 months of individual mentorship support from creative industry leaders

okay, here’s the real clincher : the full cost for this business school programme is R 3 260. that’s it.seriously.
It’s worth pretending to be an artist just to get on this programme.

[go here for the official blurb] or call Mario on 021 406 1268 and have a chat with him for more details – or grab your place* on this programme (the group HAS to be limited because of the nature of the attention given, so get in there early and put forward your case to join the learning journey).

* (may even be worth offering as a life.altering gift for someone you love who’s battling to get their brilliance to market and more than make a living, start making a life from their creative genius.)
————————————————————————————————————————————-

PS. if you’re a leader in a creative field; and bighearted enough to get involved by contributing your wisdom and time to nurture one of these young artists’ success, please connect in with me to become a mentor, and help change the trajectory of someone’s life. No pressure.