You aren’t at the top game of yours. There will always bepeople more powerful, knowledgeable and successful than you. Either you canchoose to ignore them or get under their wing and level up.
Often you are limited by your experience. And if you aresomeone who reads a lot be then you would have some room to learn from aexperience of others.
But that’s a no match to the mentor who sees your mistake,points them to you and crushes you to make sure you grow.
One way to find your mentors is to ask them out on coffee.And provide value to them. Such that they can benefit – it can be a smallthing. This gesture will make sure you are noticed and remembered by them. Anddo this often and then when you are faced with a difficult situation, you mayask them for their advice.
At this point, they will happy to help you. However, makesure you implement them with 100% of your input. And share the progress withthem.
This will make sure they get satisfied knowing that you havetaken action. This alone will separate you from the crowd.
Internet Connection
This is the day and age of the internet. And as such, youcan connect with anyone over the internet. Sometimes you would want a CEO ofsome company to be your mentor.
Then it isn’t possible to connect and ask out for a coffee.But their email would be public. If it isn’t, then choose another mentor who isavailable with email. Then send out an email introducing yourself and providingvalue to them.
It can be an analysis of their financial report or yourviews on their latest decisions. Do this often and then ask for advice when youneed them.
Because of the internet, you can look for mentors all aroundthe world, sometimes from different culture and upbringing whom you like. Andsince it is an email connection, you can make connections with many people –maybe 3 or 5 of them. It’s like a superpower because for specificdecisions, you can ask specific peoplewith expertise.
People at the top love to help people, so they feel goodabout themselves. And when people like you take action, they feel even better.
In a sense, you are doing a service to them as much as youare doing service to yourself.
No Ego
Having a mentor might feel like you are less than someone.But that is your ego speaking to you.
Humans have evolved to work in groups and thus havesustained, survived, and evolved over the years. So you can try to live yourlife with little or no help from others, trying to figuring out everythingyourself. But that would lead in long journey and you might make many mistakesalong the way.
The alternative is to let others in, take help and learnfrom their mistakes. Of course, you might still fail. But often it will bebetter than failing tones of time and getting frustrated.
Over the years, I have built a relationship over email withmy mentors. And I try now too with someone new who might come under my radar.
Send an email providing value today. One way to do that isto subscribe to their newsletter and then reply on their riffs. A mentor isyour superpower. When a crisis strikes, send an email and boom, your life getsmuch better.
Rohan's blog 