Who Believed in You?

How Purposeful Mentorship Changes the World

De: David McCormick, Dina Powell McCormick

Narrado por: David McCormick, Dina Powell McCormick, Paige McKinney, Danny Campbell

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Unleash the power of transformative mentorship. You can change somebody’s life—and that can change the world.

During the pandemic, Dina Powell McCormick and David McCormick watched as many Americans—including their six teenage daughters—were left feeling devoid of human connection and without the advice and guidance of mentors.

Recognizing the need in front of them, Dina and Dave interviewed successful leaders who stood on the shoulders of their mentor giants—people who saw something in them they may not have seen in themselves—and helped them find and achieve their purpose in life.

The audiobook features stories from some of the most influential leaders across the country sharing how their mentors changed their lives, including Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft; Tory Burch, the founder of the women’s fashion empire; Hollywood producer Brian Grazer; as well as political leaders such as Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Who Believed in You unpacks the four critical elements of transformative mentorship—mutual trust, shared values, meaningful commitment, and the importance of instilling confidence—and offers guideposts and powerful illustrations from actual mentorship journeys that both show the way and inspire.

This audiobook is just the beginning. Dina and Dave are starting a movement, encouraging leaders to share their stories of who believed in them and what advice they’re giving their mentees today.

Through unleashing the power of transformative mentorship, you can change someone’s life—and that can change the world.

©2024 David McCormick (P)2024 HarperCollins Leadership

Disappointing. Shockingly lacking in self-awareness..

The topic and introduction seemed hopeful, But the framework and model did not prove to be very enlightening. Yes, mentors matter. Yes, it's probably helpful to think of various specific ways in which a mentor might consciously strive to support and encourage their mentee. That's great, but a little obvious.

I found it odd in the beginning when the authors preemptively scold their readers on the assumption that the readers will take their messages as politically partisan. Then they go on to make sure that no observant reader could avoid noticing the overtly slanted political overtones.

They present some truly impressive case studies of mentorship that are often inspiring. Nearly all are drawn from among prominent actors in one political party. Some start with impressive careers in the military or in big business, but virtually all of them serve as appointees nominated by Republican presidents to various executive branch roles. When introducing a woman who is the CEO of General Motors, they take time out to give their personal criticisms of government policy promoting electric vehicles. Why? The policy question had nothing whatever to do with the story of mentorship that they were telling. They just had to get their political message in across.

When they draw all their examples of accomplished mentees and mentors from one party in our political world and then irrelevantly insert their own partisan political opinion about an unrelated topic, it's hard to imagine how anyone could avoid seeing their message as overtly partisan.

All of that would be tolerable, if only their framework was deeply insightful or inspiring. Unfortunately it falls a bit short there too.

Name dropping

There was nothing compelling about this book, as much as I could stomach, as a biography of people. There were no helps as far as finding a mentor or being one. Overall just a book of names of people and their accomplishments. Boring boring boring.

Mixed Bag; Heavy Emphasis on the American Dream

The core premise of Who Believed In You: How Purposeful Mentorship Changes the World is that the U.S. is experiencing a great crisis (loss of trust) and that purposeful mentorship is the means to restore trust. To their credit, the authors seem deeply passionate and committed to this ideal.

The book unveils four key principles of purposeful mentorship (trustworthiness, values, commitment, and confidence) that are unpacked through a combination of author explanation and interviews with successful people. The second part of the book continues with interviews and focuses on some of the more practical elements of this approach to mentoring.

The interviews, indeed, are one of the book's strongest aspects. Each was succinct and interesting, and I enjoyed hearing perspectives from leaders of differing backgrounds who’ve achieved great success but aren’t necessarily household names. That said, the “name-dropping” sprinkled throughout the authors’ own recounting of their experience can be too much at times.

My chief complaint about this book is its nauseatingly high emphasis on “The American Dream.” Much of the narrative and the examples it highlights take a “pull up your bootstraps” approach to achieving success. Does it have its place? Sure, but the authors also speedily gloss over any deep discussion of real and impactful societal inequities, leading to a one-sided view of success and how it can be achieved.

For all its focus on success, Who Believed in You rarely emphasizes failures or lessons to be learned from them. The examples given almost always show that transformative mentorship leads to incredible personal success, but what about when it doesn’t? What about when, even in spite of world-class mentorship, failure inevitably happens? I think it was a missed opportunity to develop a wider view of success in the context of failure.

Ultimately, this is an easy, straightforward read that raises some salient points regarding our current society and rightly points to mentorship as having the potential to have a transformative impact. However, an overemphasis on the American Dream and an avoidance of discussion around failure mean that I won’t readily recommend it to others unless tI know it’ll be in their wheelhouse.

Boasters not Mentors

It was a hard read for me. It felt as though they were saying how great they were. To me, a mentor is someone that wants to make the mentee better than them without taking credit. In fact, I would say, a mentor would expect that someday the mentee would be the mentor to the mentor. This book is all about taking credit, not giving it.

each one reach one

mentoring something each of us may do in our own sphere of influence. I am inspired to listen all over again.