The first mentors I remember way back, was Wee Geordie woods, at the grand theatre Byker UK. I was never sure why he was named as 'Wee'. To me he was about & foot tall, back in around 1953 or 4. In fact I think his actual name was Fred? He was the house stage Manager, although he did everything from sets to lighting as well.
The next was my Uncle Tony, who was a sparkie by trade & was apparently Chief Sparkie on the blue streak Missile. He taught me Ohms law & the basics of working with electricity safely. After I supposedly caused a blackout in my local street & area of the electrical supply network. When I made & operated my own, theatre lighting equipment & salt water dimming system. In my back yard, which to that point worked well & I was quite chuffed with myself - for a very short period! Mind you I was only about 7 or 8 years old at the time & the black out only proved that the safety devices of the electrical network supply system, worked very well & I couldn't understand the fuss they all made of it. Which is when my uncle Tony was called in for my family inquisition & to exact the punishment. Of being assigned under his wing until such time he deemed me competent enough, to be allowed to play with electricity on my own again. Which to this day has yet to happen! I'm still totally scared of the stuff.
One very important thing I leaned from Wee Geordie was, I bought a new pair of insulated pliers & screw divers with my fist pay from working at the Grand theatre. When I showed them to him he mentioned that they were very nice & took them out the stage door & threw them in the bin. Saying "Now I'll show you the tools you should be using". Where upon he produced steel handled pliers & a screwdriver saying "while your here you will use these, because they will ensure you don't work on anything that is live & you will live longer". I never did take this advice, & quickly recovered my new tools from the bin. After all they were worth about a half a Crown at the time! - also because deep down I'm a total chicken, but I did take heed of his message.
As Don posted lighting is not just playing with nob's. Latch on to a mentor, there are a quite a few about, who will give their time freely, if your genuinely interested & prepared to learn. No matter how old you are, pester them until their ego takes over & they give in. Comeatre is one of the best places to explore & be allowed to actually play in the sandbox.