Have done a lot of mistakes already and learnt a lot too. But a mentor is the best if you wish to progress in the positive direction. Lack of it, obviously cannot be filled by books, and you try to seek advice in books hoping that someone in the same shoes happen to write how he/she got success can help you as well.

Finding a mentor is definitely not the easiest thing as well.

But I totally agree, any form of procrastination is bad (even reading).