My question is : how do you acquire and maintain Mentors? Is it worth the time and energy spent on them in this digital age!?

Let me tell you where I am coming from ….Most of the mentors (unless you worked with them for years closely) gives you broad direction which is not what you are looking for (any way its available on the internet) .

And the second thing is Quora’s of the world would have already answered your problem little more detailed than what you are getting from these mentors. In this consulting era how do you really look for them without much finance involved into it.

Let me give you a practical example : Lets say you are my mentor ! Currently I do have challenge of email marketing strategy to acquire new customers without spending much!. ( I am running on zero budget). Now you being an successful blogger and email marketing expert

1) What would you suggest me ! ?
2) Will you hand hold me step by step ?
3) How likely next time you are going to guide me, If i am not able to apply your suggested solution!
4) How different and depth your answers would be from answers available on the internet ?

Hope I am able to articulate my prospective to you, In this kind of an environment do you really think we should Invest much time on searching and building relationship with mentors ? How practical it is going to be ? how ware you managing when you ware a start up!?

Thanks
Arun

I have someone that I have helped and that often clarifies the lessons that my mentors gave to me.

I know plenty of people that collect mentors like some startups collect big name advisors. This is not what a successful mentee/mentor relationship is. You should find mentors, typically working with them for a fixed period of time, to help you work through specific issues you have in your business, your professional and even personal life with a clear aim of ‘graduating’. Mentors typically get value from being able to give something back to people and it can be very rewarding to see people progress, equally, if you pick a mentor and constantly come back to them with new questions, problems, often time outside their own core expertise, they will get less back.

Mentors typically want three things: to give something back and make a difference to someone’s life; some thanks and recognition; an enjoyable experience.

You should cultivate relationships with potential mentors and make it clear that when you approach them, you are looking to work through a specific issue and feel that they can help. Be clear about the goal of the relationship, be pleasant and fun, remember the thanks bit!

Don’t think about mentors as a collection of badges:

“I’m being mentored by Sheryl Sandberg, Richard Branson, Donald Trump (FFS), Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.” Whoopee Doo You. You have 5 famous mentors.

Think of mentors as people that can help at specific times with specific problems:

“I’ve got a mentor who is helping me with specific problem X. She experienced something very similar when she was going through her first IPO and helped me understand that it was in fact problem Y. We then found a way to solve the problem I hadn’t even thought of. I would definitely ask her about challenges around A, B, or C. She’s been there, got the T-shirt”

And one last thing. If a mentor suggests they should be paid, they are not a mentor, they are a consultant. Run a mile. (That is not to say that you should not pay for dinner, send them a thoughtful gift, thank them.)