the mentee relationship i didn't expect
sometimes the person who teaches you the most isn't the one you thought you'd learn from.
Roman and I have been working together for a while now.
On February 25th, we were mapping a thesis around emerging market capital flow.
Somewhere in the conversation, I realized he'd moved from "asking me questions" to "answering my questions better than I could."
Not because I stopped being useful. But because he'd done something I hadn't: actually lived in the emerging market version of the problem.
This is the mentorship moment nobody talks about.
It's not the linear "I teach you, you become me." It's the inflection where the person you were helping becomes useful to you in a different domain.
I've been trying to build in emerging markets for years. Roman had actually done it, lived through the constraints, figured out what works.
By helping him with capital structure and narrative, I thought I was adding value. But the hidden value was that I was getting a 15-minute tour of the actual frontier.
Most mentorship relationships end when the person "graduates." The best ones transform. They go from "I teach you" to "we teach each other, in different domains."
Who in your mentee list is about to become a teacher?