Hack to get best mentors.

Here is the hack I used to get my best mentors. And my mentors have changed my life.

When I’m struggling with a challenge and need their help, I write an email to them with a good description of my challenge. I summarize the context, the problem, my options, and thoughts on each. I know my mentors are really busy, so I make it as concise as possible so as not to waste their time.

With this added clarity, I then search google one more time to make sure I am not wasting my mentors time with something I could have found on google. If I am still in dilemma, even after the new research, I go back and update what I wrote.

Before hitting send, I try to predict what they’ll say. Then I go back and update what I wrote to address these obvious points in advance. Finally, I try again to predict what they’ll say to this, based on what they’ve said in the past and what I know of their philosophy.

Then, after this whole process, 95% of the time, I realize I don’t need to bother them because the answer is now clear.
With the above, I hardly have to talk with my mentors. They don't know they are my mentors and have helped me so much.

And three of them don't even know I exist.