The job of a mentor is often simply to listen, and to help the mentee hold themselves accountable.
If you've been successful in your career, in spite of what you perceive as personal limitations, I bet you have the humility to be a good listener and an empathetic motivator.
Honestly, if you look at most professional mentors and coaches, especially in sports, they aren't "the best" in their field. They are people who know enough to understand the problems and life experiences people in that field face and are networked in the field and able to help connect folks with each other.
Take a look at the GROW model for a good approach to working with mentees in fields you don't consider yourself to be an expert in.
Are you sure the name ultimately comes from the character? Or was the character named after the idea of advising? The Online Etymology Dictionary suggests it means "advisor" as the agent noun for mentos, meaning "intent, purpose, spirit, passion." It could be related to monitor, and "men-", "to think."
Prescribe how you want, but one could make the case the mentee is the spirit-receiver of the mentor.
At the same time, language evolves and changes. Expecting it not to is likely only to lead to frustration. (I'm not immune. "Steep learning curve" to mean something difficult to learn gets me a bit riled.) The change you observe here is back formation[0], I believe.
Now, if you'll please excuse me. I think there are some kids on my lawn.
>(I'm not immune. "Steep learning curve" to mean something difficult to learn gets me a bit riled.)
This has exactly the same effect on me. I've always thought about skill acquisition in terms of RC time constant: the time it takes me to reach 63.2% of something is finite and infinitely smaller than the time it takes to reach 100% (which never comes, hence the infinitely smaller), sometimes a sigmoid pops into my head.
So when I heard the expression "steepest learning curve" for the first time, I thought "sweet! tau is really small! Heaviside function like skill acquisition."
My brain melted when the context that followed the expression suggested that the thing was "really hard". "But.. but.. you have a Dirac like rate".
I use it sometimes but I give offerings to the Gods asking for forgiveness.
The original formulation is based on a skill acquisition vs experience chart. On such a chart, a steep learning curve is one where skills are acquired quickly, as opposed to skills that are difficult to acquire. The common "steep learning curve" = "difficult" usage is understandable, given that steep hills are more difficult to climb. It's a knee-jerk reaction for me so it's transient: you're not going to see steam coming out of my ears :)
If you've been successful in your career, in spite of what you perceive as personal limitations, I bet you have the humility to be a good listener and an empathetic motivator.
Honestly, if you look at most professional mentors and coaches, especially in sports, they aren't "the best" in their field. They are people who know enough to understand the problems and life experiences people in that field face and are networked in the field and able to help connect folks with each other.
Take a look at the GROW model for a good approach to working with mentees in fields you don't consider yourself to be an expert in.