Mentoring has often been identified with an adolescent’s personal development.  A more contemporary understanding of mentoring, in particular, with longer human life expectancy and in a complex, fast-changing, contemporary society, views mentoring as beneficial in any life transition.  Therefore, the potential exists for several distinct, beneficial, simultaneous or sequential mentoring relationships are possible and/or necessary during one’s lifetime.

A contemporary view of mentoring has focused almost exclusively on the top down, two-person, mentor-to-protégé version of a mentoring relationship that a surface analysis of The Odyssey might lead one to understand.  However, we suggest that this portrayal of mentoring is too limiting, misleading and possibly incorrect. Similarly, contemporary descriptive references of mentoring which cite both The Odyssey by Homer and Telemaque by Fenelon are often so narrowly construed that they often lead to misunderstood analysis of the phenomenon. 

We propose that the phenomenon of mentoring, in its finest form, occurs as a result of a protégé passionately pursuing an intelligently developed and risk assessed dream.  With this in mind, the protégé is free to, more or less indiscriminately seek and obtain the help needed from multiple available sources in order to fulfill such dreams.  Simply stated, mentoring exists because successful protégés are able to convince potential mentors that both the protégé and the protégé’s cause are worthy of the mentor’s efforts.  The protégé is, therefore, able to obtain mentoring-type assistance simultaneously from the various available sources.

In summary, UIF believes that in order for mentoring to work at least three key components need to be present: a protégé with an intelligently developed and risk assessed dream; a protégé with the passion to fulfill such dream; and the availability of sufficient mentoring resources to allow the protégé to engage in mentoring relationships.  The formation and refinement of the protégé’s dream is essential to both successful mentoring and successful individual life transitions.  Interestingly, this construct represents how mentoring works best, and demonstrates how the protégé’s success is not at all dependent upon an individual mentor being either available or present.