
The importance of mentoring
Halfway into my first summer as a beekeeper a man in a white van drove up and parked outside my gate. He got out of the van, opened the gate and without as much as a hello uttered: ’You have bees.’ That encounter was the start of a long, enriching and wonderful friendship. The man in the van was Leo, and he was to become my mentor over the next few years. Until the playing-field was levelled, and we became partners in crime.
I always thought of mentoring as something other people availed of, probably a bit too fancy for me. And anyway, I have always had a rebellious mind and was never too keen on taking advice or accepting authorities. I just never though that mentoring was for me! I was going to create my own path in life and learn from my own mistakes. And then Leo opened that gate and let himself in.