Don’t teach designers. It’s a waste of your time.

It’s a waste when you try to teach the wrong people.

You have to have a set criterion before you agree to spend 1 on 1 time to mentor or train someone.

I understand that sharing your knowledge selflessly is a good thing and I’m a strong advocate, supporter, and practitioner of that.

But before you spend a lot of energy on someone’s learning, make sure that they have the following traits for a start:

  1. Desire to learn
  2. Enough passion to put in their 200%, if required
  3. Respects or values you and your time

If a person doesn’t have the above-mentioned traits, then it’s likely that they’re not worthy of your 1 on 1 time.

So, is there a way to help such people?

Yes, there is !!!

If someone doesn’t have those traits or you’re not sure whether they are worthy of your time or not, don’t just ignore or turn them down.

If someone like that approaches you for help, you can give them general guidance without spending too much time.

Depending on an individual’s need, you can direct them to helpful resources, like books, websites, videos, courses, platforms, or posts.

You can also keep on posting helpful stuff on LinkedIn or other platforms like Twitter or Instagram.

That way, if they’re really serious about learning, those resources would suffice, or at least it would get them excited enough to come for more next time.

But even if they won’t come back to you, it’ll probably take them to the right learning path.

So, spend your time carefully but stay humble and stay helpful.