 It's crazy when I first started business it's it's such a this is 10 years ago and it was such a tough thing to do is to find a mentor because we when we start off as a business owner or when you first start off as a budding entrepreneur you're wanting to find a mentor who's going to validate your thoughts who's going to understand what you've been through who's going to tell you hey this is the right step and give you the confidence in doing so and I think adjusting for the mindset that no one has the answers to your problem and the problem that you want to solve to the world no one has the answer to it just because I've been there and done that does not mean that in today's landscape and today's environment I can we can do the same thing to have the same results things change all the time and even if you copy exactly what I do a hundred percent you're not going to be able to achieve the same type of results it could be more it could be less it doesn't really matter but at the end of the day every entrepreneur they understand that people who are successful they understand that you can't replicate the same type of success everyone does things a little bit differently and my whole point in saying that is as an entrepreneur and as a mentor we cannot give answers we cannot tell you exactly what to do we can only point you towards the right direction that's what we do it's pointing you towards the right direction for you to explore what would work with what how you do things and what you're doing and what technology you have in place the landscape is changing so fast whether you'd be selling on amazon digital marketing sales funnel facebook ads everything is always changing and being and understanding this fact is so important when it comes to finding a mentor because it would set yourself to have the right expectation of when you are to engage with a mentor how would it feel like what would it be like and for me when I first started off I was always on the hunt of of exactly what I've been saying and what I'm sharing with you I'm on the hunt of someone that can tell me the answer and I feel like people are keeping everything to themselves they're not willing to share that oh they're they're keeping their secret sauce why are they not willing to share they're telling me the fluff things you know be committed have determination you know just try things out and for me at that time I'm just like dude like why are you holding out on me like why are you being so stingy tell me more and well that's the reason I reserved back to books I went out and networked for six months straight I met so many different people and at networking events they all suck and what I mean by that is 99% of the people in that room are in the same boat as you so basically it's like the blind leading the blind and the 1% seems so untouchable so at the end of the day going to these networking events it seems like that I'm wasting my time and that's the reason why I reserved back the books as my mentors and I read tons of books to learn to see what kind of trade I can I can pick up in the mindset that I should pick up and it is in collaboration of all the books that I've read that really formulated the character that I have today by understanding the different types of mindset I should pick up the different types of processes and one book that's changed my life that started my first business is e-myth revisited by Michael Gerber this book talks about the foundation of starting a business which is having being an entrepreneur being a mechanic and being a manager and the different roles that it takes to succeed in these roles and being an entrepreneur you need to be putting on different hats at different times whether sometimes I'm an entrepreneur sometimes I'm a manager and other times I'm a mechanic because it's you got to have the skill set you got to be the jack of all trades that's what the book teaches and teaches you about how to build procedures and processes so in that way it takes you out of the equation and allows the business to run as an engine itself and for me that's how I kick started my first business and that was my mentor so the whole question about finding a mentor is to really understand the expectation and to set that out right from the get go is that no one has the answers for you and no one can lead you along the way it's all you you've got to do everything yourself and believe in yourself and it doesn't come easy now you might be thinking like dude I just started business how do I how do I start believing in myself who is to tell you what's right and who's wrong what's wrong your manager is not going to prove your purchase order because you're now spending your hard earned money paying five thousand dollars for your first batch of inventory sending to amazon and your manager is not going to be like this is a go this is a go this is no go it's from your pocket and you get to decide how much you spend how much inventory you get to buy when where you're going to send it to you absorb the rewards and also you take on the risk as well whether your supplier is going to scam you whether the product has good quality assurance it's all you a mentor is not going to solve any of that for you and how you build confidence is making these decisions every single day cautiously making decisions and being accountable for it and understand that it's on you and you only that it comes back down to and as you make a decision and as it works out then now you gain a little bit more confidence to make the next decision to make the next decision and that stacks up and when you make the wrong decision then you slide back down but you don't stop there you make better decisions in the future and you make better decisions better decisions and that's how you're able to gain that confidence to make the right decisions for yourself and to validate your questions that you have so then that way people don't have to handhold you a mentor is all about pointing you towards the right direction and to share their experience of what it was like being in that situation in that crossroad that you are now in and whether it works for you or not whether it works in today's environment no one knows but it is speaking from experience that for example if you're ordering let's say inventory instead of ordering 10 000 units right right from the get go maybe you should be ordering let's say only 500 as a test run because now you can test how the packaging works how the delivery system works how the storage fees are working how your product is selling now these are things that i can share with you from my experience as to what is working but at the end of the day it might be different for you it might be different for your products you could be selling something at let's say 5000 units and it sells out within two three days who knows so i'm just sharing with you why i'm how i'm doing things and why i did things my way and it's up to you to make the decisions and it's up to you to start making your own decisions so you can gain the confidence to make your own decisions in the future that's what a mentor is for finding a mentor is see there's there's many types of mentors out there they're the people who are truly genuinely wanting to help and you can ask some one-off questions because it doesn't really take them that much time and they're the people who actually take payment as being a mentor and they're more invested in you and your business so i think it really comes back down to your perspective do you want someone in your corner to walk you through your business with you or do you want someone that's free if for example when i mentor people who are free i'm much less invested i'm much more surface because at the end of the day my time is valuable whereas when i'm coaching my clients who are paying me a couple grand a month i'm much more invested because i want them to succeed because when they succeed they'll be paying me as simple as that right so when it comes down to it if you are looking for mentors who are willing to mentor you for free which i don't think there are a lot but if you're looking for that one-off questions then really adjust your mindset of asking the right questions and what i mean by that is you're not asking questions of hey you know what i want to start an amazon business how do i start an amazon business freaking google it go youtube it there are 10 million different articles out there of how do you start an amazon business be fully informed when you go seek a mentor when you're asking a question it is about presenting a question with your solutions and now that gives context to your mentor to be like hey i would choose solution a based upon my experience do your homework first that is so important so many people come up to me and they're like hey listen you know what i want to start an e-commerce business like how do i do it what's the difference between Shopify and amazon and i tell them freaking find google i'm like what's wrong with you like dude i charge people two three hundred bucks per hour for consultation and you're asking me stupid questions that you can find online you're just being lazy that's reason why you're asking me this question it's a very very different feeling to a mentor when you go approach them and you ask them hey wilson i have five thousand dollars and i'm planning to start an amazon business and i plan on being in this specific niche selling travel products and this is my strategy of starting out this whole campaign what do you think about that do you think i should be starting off with a Kickstarter campaign first or do you think i should be doing a hundred free giveaways to gain that traction on amazon okay that's a very very very different question now i can share with you my experience in doing so like it's super helpful i can share with you hey in today's world what's working and what's not working and how we can tweak your strategy you're doing your homework i'm sharing with you what works and what doesn't work that's very very different from asking a question of hey wilson you know what i'm starting an amazon business i have five thousand dollars how do i start do you see the difference very very different and mentors are there and people who are more experienced are willing to share they're very very much willing to share so many people have dumb questions so many people are not willing to put in the work and they want people to do the work for them that's the reason why they have so much difficulty finding a mentor it is because all in their own mindset and their perspective that's the reason why it's so difficult so if you're trying to find a mentor do your homework provide that solution and better yet actually invest in a mentor people who have been there done that it's going to save you so much more time energy and money in the short term in the long run you're paying someone two three hundred bucks or let's say two grand a month you're paying for their experience you're not paying for them to talk to you for two hours that's it you're paying for their 10 plus years of experience of running a business and what they have done in the past and dumb being in your corner to tell you hey potentially this is a good way potentially this might be a way that's going to save you from spending $50,000 on your first batch of inventory which is going to go to trash because of the fact that it doesn't pass the compliance with amazon that's going to save you $50,000 by investing $2,000 those are the things that people need to understand it's not about that $2,000 it's not about the hour that you're spending with your mentor it is about their experience it is about the mistakes that it may potentially save you that's the value of a paid mentorship