How I met successful entrepreneurs

Several months ago, one of my mentors asked me, "How many of your friends are millionaires?"

My answer was "zero". That question totally shook me up, because I realize I didn't have any friends who were really successful. A lot of successful people agree that if you want to be successful, you need to hang out with them, and with good reason: Their level of confidence will shine through and influence you positively. And you could do business with them!

So I thought to myself, how do I meet such successful people? I set an intention to meet them, and ideas started coming to me.

So what did I do?

1) I joined meetup groups and went to networking events.

2) At networking events I made sure never to pitch anything. I went with the intention of making new friends with such people. It has nothing to do with trying to get a deal. The idea is to just be buddies, because NOBODY likes to be sold to. It's like a man walking up to a woman saying, "Hey, here's my dick, let's have sex". It most likely won't work!

Don't even hand them your business card unless they ask for it.

3) The event I went to was a speed networking event. I had two minutes to talk. Instead of trying to make myself look good, I asked this one simple question that showed me if I wanted to associate myself with them or not:

"What books have you read?"

And their answers speak volumes! If they name any popular business authors or books, then that's a good indication you want to get to know them!

And here's another question to ask: "What are you most passionate about?"

Or "What's most important to you about your business?"

Why? Because if they are really passionate about what they do, that's another hint that you want to be around them. It probably means they take their business seriously. As they talk about what they are passionate about, they will likely give off a certain 'vibe' that tells you they are probably successful. Plus when you talk about what they are passionate about, you will build a closer friendship with them.

When I asked these questions at the event, one person really stood out. She didn't have to say a word about how much she made. I didn't even know, but as I asked these questions, I could see she was the real deal. The vibe I got from her was "successful entrepreneur".

Other useful questions to save time:

"How long have you been in business? And what was your attitude towards money and business when you first started out and how different is it now?"

These are questions I personally asked. You can ask these questions in less than 2 minutes! So what happened next is that I decided to follow up just for coffee. Later, I discovered she's a 6-figure earner, and it made sense based on everything she told me. At no point did she ever try to get me to buy anything. Because if you try to sell, you look desperate. If you get to genuinely know them, they appreciate your value as a friend. In other words, you are providing them real value just by talking to them like a normal person.

From there, she introduced me to her mentor, who is also a 6-figure earner. I then met his mentor who makes half a million and lives 10 minutes away from me! After meeting him, I had lunch with him and it was cool to simply chill with him. What amazed me was that these 3 people live the lifestyle that I want and they are in their mid 20s and early 30s!

All of this happened because I went to networking events and start asking these simple questions.

Nearly everyone I hang out with now is a successful entrepreneur because I couldn't afford to be around my 'friends' who were holding me back from achieving my goals. Being around them was costing me my success.

So now, I'm actually doing business with several 7 figure earners (non IM niches).

So if you feel you can't meet such people, that's like saying, "I can't talk to a body builder". If you want to meet body builders, go to a gym! Entrepreneurs are real people too. If you want to meet them, go to their events! Go to wherever they are and just talk to them. Tell them you like their talk and talk about how much of an impact it will make in your life, and they will appreciate it! That is value for them!

If you can't pay for their hotel events, just show up anyway and hang out in the lobby. Dress like you're a real entrepreneur and hang out in the lobby and talk to whoever is there especially when they're on break. You don't have to spend a dime to do this! A little creativity can go a long way. Feel too lazy to go? Then guess what!? You're not committed to success, are you?

Other ways to meet them:

Here's something I literally did recently. Every now and then you'll see WF users who have skype accounts. Look for everyone that has a skype account and befriend them, and just talk to them. I literally spent a few hours adding people and just talking. As I did this, I ended up having some good conversations with several successful entrepreneurs (and the entire time I wasn't trying to meet them!). I was only thinking about making new friends with people who might have services that I could use. It's one of the easiest ways to network from the comfort of your home!

Note - If they try to sell to you, you'll instantly know they aren't worth your time. You will feel turned off. If they tell you how much money they earn, they are probably lying to you out of insecurity because a successful entrepreneur doesn't have to show off. Similarly a man who can successfully date women doesn't have to show off his penis, get what I mean? lol

Here's something else I tried: I joined a bunch of lists by successful entrepreneurs and then simply emailed them. One of them got back to me and I had a 30 minute chat with a millionaire, and the wisdom I got from it was gold!

By the way, here's something that most likely won't work on WF:

Private messages. You can send them out but don't expect a response especially when they get flooded with them by other users. Sending them is a good idea nonetheless but be creative and provide real value if you expect to get a response.

So there you have it! Now get out there and befriend them because you most likely have something of value that they may need.