This is a really interesting take on the subject. I am almost completely opposite in how I evaluate these emails, phone calls and messages. I was raised with

This is a really interesting take on the subject. I am almost completely opposite in how I evaluate these emails, phone calls and messages. I was raised with an "I can do anything" mentality and so i reached out to probably dozens if not hundreds of people when doing my first couple businesses as nothing but a kid. Truth be told the only real thing I had going for me is that I was too dumb to know I should have failed and too stubborn to give up when for all intents and purposes I already had. When I get emails these days asking for help I usually try to gauge one thing. How bad does this person want it? If they truly care it comes off in their tone and if there is passion in what they are doing they are very likely to succeed whether the odds are stacked against them or not. If they seem less passionate I typically dont really bother meeting with them or discussing anything much further. But in kind of a pay it forward mentality I realize that I could never give back to the people that gave to me at least to the extent some of them contributed. So the best I can do is help those who are in need now. Often someone will ask me to go to dinner and pick my brain about certain things or get my opinion on a subject, some just simply ask for help, but when I take those dinners I usually buy. And then I spend the time with them telling them everything that other people spent their time telling me and some things I wish I would've been told. What the author of this post should know is that you get out of life what you make. and sometimes the obvious answer to "What's in it for me" is the least helpful part of that entire equation. I have learned so much by giving others advice and learning from their downfalls and strengths. Most of us can. But some of us never will if we walk around worrying about what we will get out of it.