This man completely caught me off guard!

Back in my youth I was trying to convince a very wise business man to mentor me and the price and risk suddenly became very high.

You see, my rich dad was my first mentor. But he wasn’t my only mentor.

Back in 1996, through a mutual friend, I met Peter. He was a distinguished and articulate man who has had his own companies listed on the American and New York Stock Exchanges and on the NASDAQ.

The problem was he was very private and did not mentor.

How was I going to convince him to take me on as an apprentice?

Over the course of several months I finally got him to agree to a meeting to talk it over. I told him I would work for him for free if he would teach me everything he knew.

Naturally, he was skeptical. But once he saw that I was serious, he decided to take my offer on a trial basis.

There was a bankrupt gold mine in Peru he was considering buying. He asked me to drop everything and fly to Peru at my own expense, inspect the mine, meet with a bank and find out how much it wanted for the mine, and then fly home and give him a report.

That caught me off guard!

At first I hesitated. I had appointments scheduled for the week, it was expensive and moreover, I wasn’t sure I was up to the challenge. But deep inside I knew this was a defining moment for me.

In those few seconds, I realized that if I chose not to go to Peru I would lose this valuable potential mentor. Setting aside self-doubt and swallowing all excuses, I decided to take a leap into the unknown.

I flew to Peru and inspected the mine. It turned out to be an unwise investment, and I recommended against his buying it.

He agreed with my findings and more importantly, he agreed to teach me.

By shunning doubt and excuses, I gained the courage needed to take the next step toward my financial goals.

I am telling you this story to illustrate how important a mentor was to me and what I was willing to sacrifice to get a great mentor. Mentors changed my life.