How important is it to have a Mentor?

[Lamar Washington]

I've noticed that about 95% of all Real estate investors interviewed on the biggerpockets podcast say that they started with a mentor and highly recommend finding one. With that being said, I wanted to know how many BP users have also started investing under a mentor and did you find them? Do you think you would still be investing if you never found a mentor?

For those who did not have a mentor, how did you get started investing in Real Estate?