Want to find a mentor who can help you attain your goals, but don’t know how? You’ve come to the right place.
The right mentor can make a big difference in your life and career. He or she can guide and inspire you and help you avoid certain mistakes. So, where do you find a mentor, anyway? Most advice on this topic is fairly generic and even cheesy or downright misguided.
At networking events, for example, you mostly meet other opportunity seekers rather than potential mentors. Also, cold-calling or emailing people doesn’t usually work.
So, here are some creative and effective ways to actually find a mentor. Let’s get started.
Join a Mastermind Group
Mastermind groups are highly focused and designed to help members achieve specific goals. In fact, Napoleon Hill recommends the mastermind strategy in his self-help classic Think and Grow Rich. This group setting can be a great place to find a mentor because you’ll be exposed to successful people who want to push each other.
So, try to find a mastermind group in your area or through job contacts. Otherwise, there are many online groups you can join, too.
Reach Out to a Teacher or Speaker
Sometimes, you can find a mentor by taking a class or attending an event. When you take a class with someone, whether it’s a college course or a business event, you get to absorb quite a bit of the person’s knowledge and get a feeling for his or her personality.
If you think such a person can help you, make contact. And if you get a positive response, you may be able to turn it into an ongoing mentoring relationship.
With that said, here’s a really important thing to keep in mind: People are busy, and they won’t help you unless there’s something in it for them. So, always think about how a mentorship could benefit the person you want to be mentored by.
For example, let’s say you want to learn more about how to run a successful business. In that case, you could reach out to a successful entrepreneur and offer to be an intern and take over some day-to-day tasks to make their life easier. You’d learn a ton, but more importantly, offering to solve your mentor’s pain points would make it much more likely that they’d respond.
Check Reddit and Other Online Forums
Some people love sharing their knowledge with newbies, and they sometimes post about wanting to mentor students (often for free) on forums like Reddit.
So, make sure you take a look at this option, especially if you don’t mind being mentored virtually. You can also make a post asking for a mentor and see who responds!
Get Involved With a Charity
Volunteering your time can be a rewarding experience. Plus, it also gives you a chance to learn and meet new people. Well-connected business leaders and influencers often get involved with charities, making this a good way to meet people.
Choose a cause that you truly believe in, and you’ll have a chance to make a positive contribution while possibly finding a mentor as well.
Bottom line
These are just a few ways that you can find a mentor without coming across as pushy or desperate. All of them provide benefits even if you don’t meet your mentor.
Mastermind groups, for example, can be highly motivating in their own right. Ultimately, the best approach is to go out in the world and make as many connections as possible in a natural way so you’ll recognize the right mentor when he or she appears.
