Last week in ISM I conducted my first mentor visit. I am extremely grateful to have such an excellent and generous mentor and even more excited to learn from his expertise.
For my first mentor visit, I visited my mentor (Charles Daniel) at his home because he works at the Star in Frisco, and the Star is operating on a work from home schedule. The change of scenery from the norm was interesting. The setting had no effect on learning, and was quite relaxing and inviting. My conversation with Mr. Daniel was informative but felt casual, and the experience was very enjoyable.
In terms of content, we covered a lot of ground. We began the visit by going over the basics of mentor visits, such as expectations, dress, and scheduling. We then discussed Mr. Daniel's profession and the most important skills to have in his profession as well as in the finance industry. We then talked about information that would be important for me to know heading into our next visit. Mr. Daniel told me to conduct research on behavioral economics and recommended the novel How Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How to Correct Them by Gary Belsky. We then discussed how behavioral economics affects Mr. Daniels career and what I should know about it. Finally, we finished the visit discussing my idea for my final product, and Mr. Daniel gave me his feedback on it. Mr. Daniel said he really liked my idea for my final product and thinks that it would be really useful for both him in his profession and parents who want to teach their children about finance and economics.