What is the best way to find a mentor? Do you ask and if so how do you approach in way that would provide value?

I was born a maker, and I've been an Entrepreneur for six years now (and a wannabe for much longer before that) and I think the worst advice I've got was from people who had never taken a step of the journey. People with academic (or other) credentials who advise you based on theory and completely miss the point of entrepreneurship. They know about the theory of sales funnels and marketing strategies and much more but they've never made a cold call. Or a sale for that matter. The best advice I received was from my godfather, who is an entrepreneur and salesman. That advice was simple, brutal and actionable: "If you can't sell it to a customer, how do you expect to sell it to a salesman ?". That made me realize that you don't stand a chance at success if you can't convince anyone. A good startup advisor understands all of the field he's advising about and knows what a startup is. He knows how to apply his knowledge to the constraints a startup faces and how to deliver that wisdom in regular words to support the startup's decision process.

Reed Hoffman and Sydney Armani

Social Marketing - I know it goes without saying that social marketing will be talked about. But I think its important to stress what exactly they should be doing with it. So many people think social marketing means having a facebook page, a twitter page or pinterest and have no idea how to actually use these services to grow their brand and build a community around their product.

Honestly there's too many to mention. Most successful founders are extremely kind and have a history of helping others... my quick list - Dave McClurre - Micah Baldwin - Clay Hebert - Mike McDerment - Jon Bischke - Gabe Luna - David Hassel - Mike Walsh - Bill Clerico - Hiten Shah - Gerry Pond - Sean Power - Christine Lu - Sally Ng - Marc Nager + 100's more Again, this is a quick list / not ranked in any order - just people who I think of personally that are kind and helpful in the startup space.

A mentor should be someone who has successfully accomplished a goal that you wish to accomplish or have great insight. I personally would like a mentor that is helpful, patient, provides good direction, and doesn't mind communicating with me.