Ever since I wrote that post on 11 outstanding reasons why you need a mentor, a lot of people have been asking questions on how they can get one themselves, congratulations I've made a dedicated post about this. First of all, a quick recap
A mentor is someone who has already achieved the type of success you desire and is willing to help you achieve it yourself.
A mentor offers the advice and insights for free, if you're paying for it then that person qualifies as a consultant. A mentor just want to see you succeed because to some level they see themselves in you.
Before you can get a mentor you need to put in some work first, you need to have the desire to improve, to master a discipline and to be what I call memorable, in order words you should show great potentials which in return will attract a great mentor.
So here's how to do it.
Step 1 - Self awareness
Look deep in yourself and find out which are your core values, who are you? What do you want from life? What are your passions? What makes you happy? Who are the people you look up to and why? What's so appealing about them? Write all of these down.
Step 2 - Analyze and pick an industry
Based on the answers you have and the people you've chosen as inspiration, determine what would be an actual occupation or job that fits your description, be honest with yourself and find the job that wouldn't feel like a job, if you were to do it for the rest of your life and once you find it, that is your new goal in life.
Step 3 - Start reading
Now you need to understand the industry, buy the top five best books covering your topic at least two of these should be biographies of how someone made it big in that industry, learn from them.
Step 4 - Create your minimal viable product
A minimal viable product is the least complex version of your products or service that people are still willing to pay for.
Step 5 - Get better at your business
After you have your product you need to start improving and optimizing your entire business, learn as much as possible, test different ideas and strategies until you've got a good understanding of what it takes and how you run your type of business
Step 6 - Only now can you think of having a mentor
Only after you have a business that is running smoothly should you go after a mentor, this is incredibly important. The majority of people expect to get a mentor right from the start, when they're even playing around with ideas. People willing to mentor others are usually super busy themselves and the last thing they'd want to do is to babysit you while you're still figuring things out.
It's important that you're sure you can take care of yourself, you have a tractor record of putting in the work and that you're not going to take too much time.
One of the things we always look for when taking someone on as a mentee is their ability to be coachable, to see that they open to learning from our experiences and not think that they themselves know better only to be proven wrong by reality.
Step 7 - Identifying a potential mentor
The ideal candidate should be someone from your geography, city, state or even country, that has walked the road you plan on taking at another time or in another but similar niche, that means this person has already created and sold a company in your industry and is now done with it or they're running a similar business model at way higher stakes but in another niche.
This might sound confusing for some of you but there's actually a really good reason behind it. The reason why it is recommended for this person to be in your geography is because at some point in the future, you'll want to take them out for lunch or coffee. Ask yourself, if you'd feel successful if you were in their shoes, if yes you've found yourself someone good.
Step 8 - Analyze them and their business
Once you've found this individual, it's time to start learning about their business and about themselves. Read as much as possible with the goal to identify a weakness or a very time consuming part in the business they're running, this would be your in.
Step 9 - The gift
This is probably the most important part of the process, after you've educated yourself and identified something this person is struggling with or taking too much time to manage, it's time to reach out. You'll do so by offering to take that burden off their hands for free , super important, do it for free before you reach out , it's recommended that you have proof that you can take care of the problem.
Everyone needs more time and want to externalize some of their work and the fact that you're willing to do it for free is an indication that you're not trying to sell them on anything.
Step 10 - The question
This potential mentor of yours would be intrigued by your proposal and would question why you want to do this. This when you come out with the truth, you'll tell them about yourself, about the small business you've created and that you're looking for someone to offer occasional advice, you'd be willing to do the work no matter what but if there's any advice to give you'd be willing and open accepting it.
Step 11 - They're probably going to say yes
Influential people receive tons of messages, but very few people are willing to do quality work for free. That's how you know someone is serious and worth investing in.
Step 12 - Prove to your mentor that you're coachable
Your mentor will recommend you books, ideas, events, things to implement, you should do all of them, get them done so they know you're serious, the last thing a mentor wants to offer is advice that never gets put into action, that's when they'll drop you.
This is basically how you get a mentor. The next time someone asks you how to do it, just send them a link to this post.
Photo source 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
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