When The Acolyte was announced and pitch as a Star Wars show focusing on the antagonists of the universe, I was so excited. This isn’t a film/television review newsletter, so I’ll spare the details; simply saying that it left a lot to be desired for me. Instead of the letting the hate flow through me with negative discourse, taking the Sith as a metaphor for mentorship felt much more productive.

Whether you’re a huge fan of Star Wars or never seen any of the films, the cultural impact of George Lucas’ creation has been cemented in culture. Many are familiar with the Jedi; the people in robes who swing big glow sticks. The Jedi are noble knights, protectors of what is good while the Sith are wielders of the Dark Side of the Force. Darth Vader, who was once Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father (I’d say spoilers but you’ve had 44 years to watch it), was once a promising Jedi and fell to the Dark Side and joined the Sith.

I believe inspiration can take many forms. You can learn from fictional worlds and apply in real life. In this case, the Sith’s approach to mentorship between master/apprentice (mentor/protégé).

Challenges with modern mentorship

There many people, communities, and resources that enable seeking mentorship in tech. However, there are a few challenges I’ve personally observed or hear from people seeking mentorship. The first is finding a mentor in the first place. The relationship of master/apprentice is a deep bond, one that isn’t transactional. The second challenge is the depth of commitment. With all that is going on with people’s personal and professional lives, finding time to go deep can be of challenge. Though there is no set amount of time one needs to dedicate for mentorship (it happens when its needed), there needs to be a sense of cadence of check-ins to happen in order for progress to happen.

Lessons from the Sith

In the Star Wars universe, Sith are viewed as the antagonists, people who are ambitious to gain power and use methods of the force people would call unnatural. Do not take this metaphor literally and in no way am I advocating for becoming a dictator of a galactic empire. Please don’t do that. The Sith do have approaches to how they mentor that I’ve found as powerful concepts in my approach to mentorship.

The Rule of Two

The Rule of Two is the most popular concept portrayed on screen: one master to embody the power, one apprentice to crave it. The majority of audiences are likely familiar with the pair of Emperor Sheev Palpatine and Darth Vader. To be clear, this rule gets broken constantly in the lore, but the constraint is powerful.

In the past years, I adopted this rule to mentorship. The intent is not to be exclusive of people. I wish I had the time and energy to mentor 100 people. Many mentors burn themselves out by overcommitting; an important reminder that what gives you fulfillment can burn you out. My new approach is mentoring one new Head of Design and one early career designer.

The Rule of Two solves the challenge of depth and bandwidth. My first mentor in design was the person who taught me all the fundamentals. From Information Architecture to building my own company, she provided direct training on how to do it. My next mentor has known me since 2016 and has been supporting me throughout my career as an executive. The more time you spend with the same person, familiarity and depth of context can be applied to mentorship. It’s impossible to do this in ad hoc sessions with a stranger.

Embrace ambition

The Sith code emphasizes passion, strength, power, and victory. It is so encouraged that we see the apprentice attempt or successfully overthrow their master. I’m not advocating for a hostile takeover. However, I align with the saying, “There is no success without a successor.” For me, there is no greater success than having the person you mentor surpass you in every single way. Potential should never have a ceiling of achievement.

Acknowledge it’s okay to be ambitious and a desire to further develop. Many people I’ve mentored in the past came from a similar upbringing and demographic as me. For example, a lot of Asians in tech struggle with advocating for themselves when it comes to professional development; being taught the model minority trope. In this case, self-advocacy, and even gaining power, is a skill they need to build further their career.

Acknowledge negative emotions and brutality

When I mentor someone, I give them a precaution about what the relationship will be like. It will be brutal and grounded in the reality we live. It means they’re going to have to accept that bias, discrimination, and unfairness exists in the professional world they are seeking. Accepting and acknowledging it does not mean you believe it to be right, but it’s a force of nature you have to navigate.

Channeling negative thoughts can result in positive outcomes. Harness emotion to fuel your ambition into a way that’s transformative.

Secrecy and discretion

The Sith operate in the shadows. In issue 143 I wrote about the underrated act of building in private. Keeping quiet is a lost art. Similar to the Rule of Two, training and developing under the veil of secrecy alleviates public pressures; allowing focus on training.

Recap

Inspiration and developing concepts can come from anywhere. It can come from real-life learnings throughout your career and from a ficticious world such as Star Wars. We can learn from anything and anyone, even our “enemies.” The lore of the master/apprentice relationship of the Sith helped forge my approach to mentorship:

• Constrain mentorship to have low volume, high bandwidth relationships (apply the Rule of Two)

• As a mentor, success is your apprentice surpass you in ever single way (a true measure of progress)

• Embrace your emotions and the brutality of the world (don’t sugarcoat reality)

• Secrecy and discretion fosters environments of fewer distractions (not everything needs to be built in public)

Whether you are an experienced person in tech mentoring others or starting your journey, I hope this gives you a few ideas to your approach or what you’re seeking!