One of the most common excuses I hear from young people is:
“I’m stuck because I don’t have a mentor.”
They imagine that some successful, wealthy person is going to swoop down from the sky, take them under their wing, and reveal the secret map to success.
Stop waiting for a savior.
The desire for a mentor is often just procrastination disguised as ambition. You don’t need a coffee chat with a local businessman. You need to read.
The “Dead Mentor” Theory
Why limit yourself to the people who happen to live in your city and have free time on Tuesday afternoons? The pool of “living, available mentors” is tiny and mediocre.
The pool of Authors is infinite and elite.
Through books, you have access to the smartest people who have ever lived.
- Want to learn about investing? Warren Buffett wrote letters for 50 years explaining exactly how he thinks. He is your mentor.
- Want to learn about resilience? Marcus Aurelius wrote a private diary while ruling Rome. He is your mentor.
- Want to learn about wealth? Naval Ravikant has a free almanack online. He is your mentor.
When you read a great book, you are downloading decades of someone’s trial-and-error directly into your brain in a few hours.
The ROI of Reading
Think about the math.
A “real life” mentor might give you 30 minutes of distracted advice once a month.
A book gives you the author’s absolute best thoughts, edited and refined, available 24/7.
For $15, you can buy the life experience of a billionaire.
If you saw a billionaire selling their “Secret Playbook” for $15, you would buy it instantly. That is what a biography is.
Yet, people ignore books and chase “networking events.” It is insanity.
How to Treat a Book Like a Mentor
Don’t just read passively. Interrogate the book.
Treat the author like they are sitting in the room with you.
- Argue with them: “Why did you make that decision? What would you do in my situation?”
- Take Notes: If you don’t write it down, you didn’t learn it. Highlight the principles.
- Re-read: You wouldn’t meet a mentor once and never talk to them again. Re-read the best books every year. You will find new lessons because you have changed.
The “Just in Time” Method
You don’t need to read books cover-to-cover like a school assignment.
Use the Just-in-Time method.
- Problem: “I’m bad at negotiating.” -> Mentor: Read Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss.
- Problem: “I can’t focus.” -> Mentor: Read Deep Work by Cal Newport.
- Problem: “I hate my job.” -> Mentor: Read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss.
Stop asking random people for generic advice. Go to the expert who wrote the manual on your specific problem.
The Verdict
If you can read, you have no excuse to be ignorant.
The answers to the test are already written down.
Stop looking for a guru to save you.
Go to the library and save yourself.
The Challenge:
Identify the #1 problem you are facing in your life right now (Money? Fitness? Anxiety?).
Go to Amazon or Goodreads. Find the highest-rated book on that exact topic.
Buy it (or get it from the library).
Read the first chapter tonight.
You just hired a world-class mentor for the price of a sandwich.