The Value of Mentors At Any Age

I’ve never met Seth Godin in person nor talked to him on the phone. But he had a huge impact on how I think and write about retirement and I will always owe him immensely for that.

Early on in my retirement I was having a hard time with things. My son Danny felt sorry for me so he invited me to a seminar where Seth Godin was the keynote speaker. I had never heard of Seth before but liked his presentation and even better each attendee was given his book “What To Do When It’s Your Turn.”

That book title haunted me for a long time, and the seminar turned out to be one of my biggest “aha” moments. It was then that everything started to make sense to me and I suddenly knew exactly what I needed to do from that point forward.

I felt like Seth was personally challenging me to take action so that I could achieve the lasting happiness I was after. He was telling me that it was up to me to gain control of my future and achieve the life I always wanted. I had paid my dues. And because of that I had earned a turn to do whatever I wanted with my new-found freedom.

Reading Seth’s book helped pull me out of Retirement Hell and set me on a path to figure out who I really was and what I wanted to become. I realized that retirement wasn’t the end goal I’d been striving for but, rather, a new beginning.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

Seth’s question both excited and terrified me. It was essentially the same question I was asked when I was much younger: “What do you want to do with the rest of your life?” I was never able to answer that question as a child, and even when I finished school, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had no idea about what I would be good at. I basically fell into the first job I was offered and stayed there for the next thirty-six years of my life.

I felt that now I was now being given a second chance to answer that same question and I wanted to be able to give a good answer this time.

What did I now want to do with the rest of my life?

It took a lot of self-reflection before I was finally able to answer that question for myself. What I did know right out of the gate was that I didn’t want to waste my turn and just retire in the traditional way like everyone else.

My answer came to me one day during a bout of early morning writing that I should write a book about retirement. I figured that because of all the struggles I experienced trying to figure this retirement thing out for myself, I thought people could learn and save a lot of time learning from what I went through.

The only problem was that I had never written before and found the process extremely exhausting. I’ve lost count of the number of times I felt like throwing up my hands and quitting but out of nowhere one of Seth’s daily morning blogs would arrive on my computer and motivate me to carry on.

Unknowingly to him, Seth became my virtual mentor through his books, podcasts and daily blog posts. Six years have passed since I started working on that first book and since then it has since turned into a second book, a weekly blog, public speaking and a retirement coaching business.

Funny how life turns out when you finally decide to take your turn.

But there’s more. Last week I was looking at some of the comments on Amazon about our new book ‘Retirement Heaven or Hell” which was released last month and noticed the one below;

Seth Godin 5.0 out of 5 stars

Thoughtful, useful and important

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021

As more and more boomers get ready to retire, Drak's book is a guiding light on how they can do it with peace of mind and possibility.

Reading Seth’s comment made me feel like I was back in school receiving a gold star from my favorite teacher. Validation from someone whose work I highly respect is special and you can’t buy a feeling like that with money. You have to earn it the old fashioned way, through hard work and being generous with it.

I was lucky.

Seth saved my soul from Retirement Hell and put me on a path where I’m enjoying the best years of my life and I will never forget that.

About the author

Mike Drak is the Author of the best-selling book Victory Lap Retirement and Retirement Heaven or Hell - Which Will You Choose. Along with being an Author, Mike is also an award winning blogger, retirement coach and public speaker and has made appearances on BNN, CBC Radio and iHeart radio. He is a thirty-eight year veteran of the financial services industry and lives with his wife Melina in Toronto, Canada. You can contact Mike through LinkedIn