Personal reflections on mentorship as a pathway toward sustaining a joyful dermatologic practice: Part I: Influential mentors during training and early career.

The greatest mentors model career paths that are personally fulfilling and intellectually stimulating, provide tangible guidance and boundless encouragement to help mentees discern and achieve their goals, and inspire self-confidence in mentees that translate to success in a variety of areas, including patient care, education, research, and overall life purpose. Mentorship is a readily available resource to all of us and embodies many of the qualities that initially attracted us to the medical profession. Helping others to achieve their goals is inherently joyful and immensely gratifying, and it provides clarity of purpose that we are part of a community greater than ourselves.