This is the fifth in a series of blogs featuring the Venture Club, written by Evening MBA student Kelci Dye.

The Kelley School of Business at IUPUI hosted a panel of professionals to discuss the importance of mentoring relationships and how to make the most of them on April 18. The panel was made up of a number of business leaders (and some Kelley alum!) from the Indianapolis community: Gary Brackett, CEO at Stacked Pickle; Regan Brackett, Family Medicine Physician; Melissa Greenwell, EVP and COO at Finish Line; Sunny Lu Williams, General Manager-Medical Solutions at Telamon Corp.; Rob Williams, Consultant-Emerging Technology and Healthcare Innovation at IU; and Dave Wortman, Chairman and CEO at Diagnotes, Inc. The panel was moderated by Alison Martin-Books, Chief Mentoring Officer of Diverse Talent Strategies.

This was a great discussion to listen to, as I am getting to ready to move on to a new career and begin a new job. This event helped me recognize the importance of mentoring relationships in my career, and that I need to be intentional to make sure I have these relationships in place as I start a new path.

All of the panelists shared different thoughts they had learned from their mentors and how these mentors had impacted their life.

Gary Brackett gave the example of being taught the law of “addition by subtraction.”

He explained, his mentor emphasized doing a few things better than anyone else instead of lots of things averagely. If you can focus on being the best at just a few things, it will separate you from the pack. And that strategy worked for Gary Brackett because this philosophy is what helped lead his team to win the Super Bowl.

I also appreciated the panelists’ perspective on being a mentor when that time comes. They all agreed that the mentor often gets just as much from the relationship as the mentee does. One panelist said mentoring is energizing because you are reminded of when you had that initial passion starting out.

I am excited that I heard this panel discussion just before I start my new career. I am now energized and focused on finding a mentor to help me along in order to make the most of my Kelley Evening MBA after graduation.