By 1993, I had been writing for a couple years and hadn’t really made a whole lot of progress. This was the year I first started hanging out with the newly formed MSK crew and was put on a few months later. At the time I got in, the crew was very small, it was Eklipse, Gank (Gkae), Fate, Havok, Saber, Gone, and Baba.
Gank was my mentor and shared a great deal of knowledge about the graffiti game. He schooled me on the rules, the crews, other writers, how to carry myself, etc. Eklipse was also a mentor to us. He gave me letters to learn from. It was a sheet of paper with some styles drawn in ballpoint pen. This sheet of paper and some guidance took me further in a couple months than the previous couple years.
Mentors and proximity to people excelling in their field can fast track your progress if you implement what you learn. I found the same thing in business. In 2020 I joined the Arete Syndicate with mentorship from Andy Frisella and Ed Mylett. It’s been close to three years of learning from them and being in proximity to other entrepreneurs that are pushing themselves to be better. I’ve learned more about business and leadership in the last three years than I did the first seventeen years in business.
If you’re getting started in graffiti, business, or just about any area, a good mentor can greatly shorten the timeline of your progress. On the other side, if you’re experienced, you can really help fast track the growth of those that are just coming up.