How to get a mentor --- help us help you

After getting bombarded by mentorship requests from people sending me PM's asking for help like the one below:

Hi,
My name is Billy and I've yet to to find success online but I know a lot about IM. I need a mentor to help me. I am willing to learn and start working and making money ASAP.

And right off the bat, I want to ask, "Billy, you say you haven't succeeded yet and that you already know a lot...can you tell me what you've tried so far?"

I'm practically expecting him to say something along the lines of that he's read a lot of IM blogs, bought some WSO's, spent lots of time on WF, built one blog and kept it up for 6 months, before quitting. And if so...I'll have to say that's less than 1% of effort of the successful guys on here.




Let me just say this:

1. It's very hard for me or anyone to mentor you if you have nothing to show for all the "knowledge" that you've acquired. We don't know where you are, what your strengths or weaknesses are. We don't know how to help you or even where to begin with. It's not our job to build from scratch for you. You have to do it yourself and then we give you feedback along the way. If you haven't actually done anything yet (regardless of how much information you've already read/learned)... then you're basically on the same level as a guy who started yesterday. You're basically at point zero.

2. If you're not even currently working on your IM idea, then it would be foolish of me to invest any of my own time into your idea...and thus be spending more time executing on it than even you are doing. And to do that for free (without any commitment cost in time/money from your part)...not good for any mentor.

3. The very mentors who are excited to help you for free....will be excited because they see that you're already well on your way to success and their reward is that they get to be a part of it. So if you want to motivate people to work with you, you have to give them something to be excited about...something to be a part of. Most mentors will not want to work with someone who has nothing...not because they don't want to help you...but because they don't see the point in committing to someone who hasn't committed to themselves yet.

4. It's very hard for me to mentor you if you don't know what you want to do. There are a million ways to make money out there and I'm only experienced in very few. Unless you know for sure that you want to copy what I'm doing, it's not a good idea for you to ask for my help when you're starting from scratch. The hardest part is to figure out what you want to do. And once you figure that out, you can start your process and the mentors will give you guidance and feedback along the way.

5. Mentors (aka successful people) are very cautious of people who want shit for free. There's a difference between a guy who's been trying different things and only needs a few tips. Versus a guy who basically hasn't done anything but wants you to teach him every step of the way. It's ok if you're lost and confused...but you need to have done something. Saying: "I've started these 15 sites and none of them made any money." is a great way to start a conversation. Saying: "I have big goals and want to make a lot of money within X number of months but I haven't started yet." makes you sound like you're not serious enough to commit and gamble off your own investment (time/money).