The team behind The Modern House are launching a new estate agency for historic homes this week called Inigo. I remember being taught about their namesake Inigo Jones, “the self-taught draughtsman, architect and painter who started a revolution in design“, when I studied at the Courtauld Institute but unfortunately I’ve forgotten most of it so I was interested in reading more about his legacy in their original post.
When describing how he started off in the world of architecture and draughtsmanship they describe him as taking “more of a meandering path“. I really liked this expression as it in many respects I’ve had an unorthodox working career which can be difficult to explain and I’ve normally found that life is not a straight line but rather one that goes up and down, like waves.
It seems that although Jones didn’t spend time in well-known academic institutions or have close ties with famous architects, he overcame all of that with drive and passion in what he was interested in. This reminded me of Rosa Park’s career in her description of what Kettle’s Yard made her feel and her own life choices which I wrote about in an earlier post.
Jones did have the good fortune however of getting the support of a moneyed patron who was impressed by the quality of his sketches, which allowed him to travel to Italy to study drawing and painting and subsequently to Denmark to work for the king on the design of palaces. It is very possible he may not have succeeded without this help.
I’m a strong believer in the power and value of mentoring but unfortunately have found through my own experience that connecting mentors to mentees is a difficult process. Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist who I follow, recently wrote about this topic on his blog and highlighted this difficulty:
The thing about mentors is you can’t really ask someone to mentor you. It kind of happens organically. Someone takes you under their wing. They see something in you and want to bring it out, develop it. That’s how the best mentor / mentee relationships happen.
Although I agree with this remark, I also think more can be done to make connections easier and more efficient. For example I think businesses, schools, universities and other organisations could implement programmes to help facilitate these relationships.
Going back to Inigo Jones, in the last paragraph they summarise brilliantly the inspiration we can take away from him in any field: “[…] his unrelenting pursuit of his interests, his multifaceted approach to learning and his daring courage to mix the old with the new […].”
My Excerpts 