There are some excellent answers to this question on Quora: http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-important-qualities-to-look-for-in-a-mentor http://www.quora.

There are some excellent answers to this question on Quora: http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-important-qualities-to-look-for-in-a-mentor http://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-important-qualities-t... In my experience, approaching a mentor and asking them to be your mentor is not the best way to go about it. I found that a mentor relationship will occur naturally if you're ready for it and you have shown that you are insanely passionate about something enough to take action before ever approaching a mentor. I guess one way to determine if somebody can or will mentor you is to simply ask for their advice on something that you are doing or have done. You have to show a lot of initiative though - it can't be conceptual in nature. For example, you wouldn't want to approach a rock star in your space and say "I'm thinking of doing this, would that work?" Instead, approach them and say "Check this out, here's what I have done. What do you recommend I do next?" If they get excited about what you have done, then you may have found a good match. Let that relationship grow and do not force them into being a mentor. I think a lot of the best mentors never consider themselves as mentors because they simply like helping out people and projects that interest them.