5 Steps To Find A Mentor

If you study the most successful people in the world, you'll find that the common denominator amongst every successful individual is the presence of a mentor who helped them achieve their success.

As humans, we learn by example, and the successful are no exception to this. They, too, all had mentors who taught them and helped them along the way.

Alexander the Great, for example, was mentored by Aristotle. Albert Einstein had Max Talmud. Tom Hanks had Rawley Farnsworth. Warren Buffett had Benjamin Graham. Mark Zuckerberg had Steve Jobs. The list goes on and on. But this isn't new information to us. We all know that finding a mentor is important.

The question for us, however, is how can we find a mentor? In his book “Real Artists Don’t Starve,” bestselling author Jeff Goins explains how to properly go about doing this.

In his book, Goins says that if you want to find someone to mentor you, whether it’s a musician, a writer or an entrepreneur, there are 5 steps you need to follow.

1. Find someone worth being mentored by

The first step in finding someone to mentor you is finding someone worth being mentored by.

When you're looking for someone to be your mentor, you want to find someone who is 10 to 20 years ahead of you and who is similar to you in strengths and weaknesses.

If you don't find someone who is like you and that can teach you relevant information, you'll end up feeling constantly frustrated.

To ensure that you find the right person, find several people worth being mentored by before committing to a single mentor.

2. Study their content

When you find a person worth being mentored by, the second step is to then consume as much of their content as possible.

Read every book and article they’ve written, watch every video they’ve put out, and buy whatever it is they’re selling.

3. Apply their content

The third step is to then follow the advice that you learned from studying them and apply their teachings.

Influencers are busy people and they’re constantly being bombarded with emails from other people who are trying to get their attention as well. Because of this, you have to make yourself stand out from everyone else.

How do you do this? You have to prove that you can do the work. You have to show that not only can you learn, but that you can also act on what you learn. This is how you earn the attention of a mentor.

Once you’ve started seeing results as a result of following their methods, you then want to move on to the fourth step.

4. Ask for advice

The fourth step is when you finally reach out to the person you want to mentor you and you ask for their advice.

You do this by using the following prompt: “Thank you for W. I applied X. It helped me do Y. Now what about Z?”

For example, “Hey, thank you so much for writing your book about social media! I applied the tactics in it to my own social media and it helped me grow my audience from 0-20,000 followers. What do you suggest is the next step?”

Whatever you do, don’t ask for their advice before steps two and three. Do it afterwards. Show them that you’re a student of their work and that you applied their teachings and have seen results.

As Jeff Goins says in his book, “First become a case study, then ask for help.”

5. Repeat the process

Now, the fifth step is to repeat this process. When you reach out to someone, it’s possible that they may not respond to you the first time.

Remember, finding a mentor is a process, not a formula, which means if you do X, you’re not always going to get Y. But if you do X multiple times, then you will eventually get Y.

If you follow this outline enough times, eventually someone will notice you, and they’ll respond back to you.

What do you do when they respond? You apply the advice they give you. Then eventually you reach out to them again asking what it is you should do next.

This is how you prove that you’re better than the average person. This will help you start to build a relationship with them.

But the prerequisite for this is you have to put in the work.

So, if you’re up for the challenge, find an influencer in your field who you would like to learn from and apply this method.

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Edited by LinkedIn Campus Editor Miki Ding