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Entrepreneur deposits

By Elayne Fluker | Published February 10, 2011 | Full size is 506 × 337 pixels

5. Don't try to make withdrawals where you haven't made deposits. It's really unfair to email people asking them to mentor you when you have nothing to offer them. I know it sounds harsh, but it's true! I get hundreds of requests for mentorship each year, and the ones I normally respond to (outside of the tip sheet I give to everyone) are the people who say, “can I take you to coffee?” The reason is, that small gesture shows that the person believes in a mutually beneficial relationship. I have a good friend who built his entire business off of taking people for lunch – even when he barely had the money to do so. And he was able to convince some pretty important people to have lunch with him and eventually fund his business. If you ask him his secret to success, he'll tell you it was simply asking people to lunch.

5. Don’t try to make withdrawals where you haven’t made deposits. It’s really unfair to…

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