By Pattie Mihalik

newsgirl@comcast.net

If you’re a regular viewer of “Shark Tank,” you know the multimillionaires often say they help others getting started because there were mentors in their own lives that helped them.

Mark Cuban and Daymond John in particular say they were aided by various mentors in their lives.

Yes, both tell stories of their extraordinary work ethic that led them to go from nothing to men of prestige and immense worth.

They could say they made their own success. But they don’t. They credit their mentors who helped them get started.

For John, that was his mother, first and foremost. For Cuban, it was people who believe in him and gave him a chance.

Truth be told, I often wonder if there is such as thing as a “self-made man.”

Through the years I’ve interviewed plenty of highly successful individuals. Most of them said that along the way they had encouragement and support from those who believed in them.

When you think about it, most of us have had encouragement and support somewhere during our life.

When I think of those who influenced and/or helped my journalism career, several people come to mind. But foremost of all was my sophomore English teacher, Mildred Byerly.

Let me tell you what kind of student I was when I landed in her English class. I was a hurting, confused and rebellious kid. My parents had divorced, my dad went on to raise another family and my mother insisted I had to drop out of my college prep courses.

She forced me to switch to the business course “so I could gain the skills to support myself,” she said. The classes were far too easy for me but it didn’t matter because I no longer cared about getting good grades.

I guess the technical term for it is that I “acted out.”

I went into Miss Byerly’s class with a belligerent attitude that should have made her dislike me. Worse yet, I worked hard to be a behavior problem. I sat in her class eating an apple or polishing my nails waiting for her reprimand. It never came. She pretended not to notice.

Instead, whenever I turned a paper in, she wrote long, encouraging notes saying I had a rare talent.

On the bottom of one paper she wrote: “You could have a brilliant career as a newspaper journalist.”

Do you know what Miss Byerly did with that one sentence? She changed the direction of my life.

I never before had thought of a newspaper career. Heck, my family never even subscribed to any paper.

But from the time I got Miss Byerly’s praise and encouragement, I became laser focused on working for a newspaper. My grades shot up to near perfect and my bad attitude disappeared.

Miss Byerly made me realize I could be anything I wanted to. And I wanted to be a journalist.

Incredibly, that happened at the start of my junior year in high school when I went to career day. Mr. Dyer, the executive editor of our local paper, was the guest speaker. I sat enthralled, lapping up every word he said.

He ended his talk by invited us to “stop by to see him if we had any questions.”

He didn’t think anyone would take him up on it. In an earlier column I shared the story of the spunk I had when I told him his newspaper didn’t have much to interest kids. We were supposed to be his future subscribers, but there was nothing for us in the paper.

When I told him my plan to write a teen page that would also interest his general readership, he was supportive.

From that day on he became my early mentor, giving me the chance to prove myself.

By the end of a few weeks, Mr. Dyer gave me a full page of my own.

At 16, I could waltz into a store to interview owners about what fashions were best-sellers or interview school cafeteria cooks about what they could do to enhance the food choices offered to students.

By the time I graduated from high school, I had two full years of newspaper experience under my belt and dozens of writing samples to show prospective employers.

My career took off at an early age. And it was all because a teacher encouraged me and a newspaper editor gave me a chance.

I was so grateful to Miss Byerly that after I graduated I sent her a birthday bouquet of roses every year as well as a note telling her what her encouragement meant to me. I continued that until she passed away.

In subsequent years, there were other publishers, including Fred Masenheimer, who became mentors by giving me a chance to work at what I loved.

Sometimes mentors help by giving us a chance.

Sometimes they help by encouraging us when we need it most.

While you might not have given much thought to the mentors in your life, I bet you could think of the times when someone encouraged or helped you.

While I can never pay back the many mentors in my life, I do it in one way — I try to be a mentor to others.

Thanks to Miss Byerly, I learned firsthand the power of encouragement.

Encouragement cost nothing to give but it can change lives.

Contact Pattie Mihalik at newsgirl@comcast.net.