Contacting would-be VIP mentors is something most people have trouble with. The question isn’t just “how do I contact them?” but also “how should I communicate with them once I do?” I teach students how to reach the unreachables in my guest lectures at Princeton, and here is my response to a recent e-mail about the latter.
Dear Mr. Ferriss,
Hi. I took the first step towards gaining a mentor by calling [important Chairman], and he said I can call him whenever I had any more questions. I was wondering how frequently you contact your mentors. I don’t want to contact him so frequently that it consumes his time, but I don’t want him to forget about me either.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Sincerely,
[A blog reader]
My response…
Have one truly meaningful conversation with him and ask good questions. Do the same about 3 months later and you’ll never have to “keep in touch” by bothering him. He’ll remember you. I never “keep in touch” by calling or emailing when I have nothing important to say or ask. Have fewer deep connections and you don’t need to. Be memorable and you don’t need to be frequent. The latter just annoys important/busy people.
Hope that helps!
Tim
Related links:
How to Get George Bush or the CEO of Google on the Phone
Odds and Ends: Win a Virtual Assistant and Outsource Your Life
As many of you know, I’ve outsourced everything from hardcore business functions to personal chores, such as emptying my inbox, and even online dating (see my “extreme personal outsourcing” article for the last).
Well, there is some good news if you’ve ever thought about personal outsourcing but haven’t yet tried it. To help you kick off the New Year right, Elance is sponsoring a contest that will award a $5,000 credit to a winner to enable them to hire their own Virtual Assistant (VA) for 2008.
Enter by going here and answering the question: “How would you use a virtual assistant to grow your business or improve your personal life?”
You can submit an answer in written, video (check out this one) or audio form. As one of the judges, I will be looking for submissions that demonstrate a compelling business or personal need for a VA and show a lot of creativity. Entries must be received by January 25, 2008 11:59:59pm PST.
Go get ’em!
The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than one billion downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.
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