Bob Andelman will never forget that Friday in 2012 when his phone rang at 7 a.m. It was the director of communications for Wawa, the Philadelphia-based gas station and convenience store chain.
The company, the woman told the barely-awake (and therefore slightly annoyed) St. Petersburg writer, was approaching its 50th anniversary, and CEO Howard Stoeckel wanted to commemorate with a book. He’d asked her to reach out.
“I know that all of you want to earn money and not only work, right?” asked Jonathan Rodriguez, a cooperative business developer, to a crowd of children, teenagers, and adults who were listening attentively and taking notes at the Enoch Davis Center on Thursday.
“Think about a service that needs to be provided here in South St. Pete. That could be turned into a business,” he added. A young mother raised her hand and said, “Early childcare services maybe. I know many young single mothers trying to go to school, but can’t because they have to care for their young children.”
This is my first book review for The Catalyst, and it should be taken with not just a grain, but a shaker of salt. It begins will the full disclosure that I am friends with the author, that I have recruited her on occasion to teach writing with me at the Poynter Institute, that we appear now and then together at bookstores, that we enjoy drinking coffee at the Banyan, and that the coincidence of my first name and her last name has given birth to the Roy and Roy Show.
Honestly, because I liked throwing parties. I realized the thing giving me the most meaning in my life was throwing a dorky themed party where everyone was required to dress up, and that helped break down a lot of barriers and made it easier for people to connect.
Angels talk a lot about mentoring, but how many know what it really means? If you can’t describe what a great mentor does, you’ve probably never been one. A great mentor relationship is actually a pretty rare and special thing. It doesn’t come about all that often, and it’s not something that can be forced. But it is worth trying to find an opportunity to mentor if you can, because great mentors are so powerfully helpful to entrepreneurs and derive immense satisfaction in the process.
