Things to Know to Achieve Personal and Career Success
As is often the case with wise words like these, they can be interpreted in different ways. If it’s personal and professional success you are after, it would mean that you should spend as much time as you can in the company of successful people.
Although the idea of several individuals getting together and using their collective knowledge and minds in order to achieve a certain goal is anything but new (in fact, it goes back a couple of thousand years), the concept of mastermind groups was formally introduced by an American author Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich, which went on to become one of the best-selling books of all time.
In essence, a mastermind is a group of people which gets together on a regular basis, be it daily, monthly, or once a year, for the purpose of using their joint intelligence to face challenges and problems. In order to make the most out of this concept, check out these effective tips that will turn each mastermind session into a slam-dunk.
1. Keep Your Goals Ambitious, Yet Realistic
Once you’re a part of a mastermind group, you can afford to set higher goals, ones that seemed impossible before, because you can rely on intelligence, knowledge, and experience of others within the group, just as they can rely on you for the same reasons.
That’s what it’s all about. Working together to achieve more than each individual would if left to their own devices. Of course, your goals should still be rooted in reality. A mastermind is not a magic wand.
2. Group Should Gather People with Overlapping Skillsets
How People Affect Your Success
One of the best ways to benefit from a mastermind is to gather people whose fields of expertise overlap to a certain extent. For instance, a group could contain writers, web designers, software engineers, marketing experts, and so on.
Each coming from a different background, yet with a common thread around which they can build their collaboration and create something exceptional.
3. Be Aware of Both Weaknesses and Strengths
Weighing Your Strengths and Weaknesses Can Help You
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Each member of the group is a liability to a certain extent, including you. With that in mind, a mastermind should be formed so that it’s impervious to all of the liabilities put together, and capable of functioning despite of them.
This also means that it’s a good idea to have people with complementary skills and character traits within the same mastermind group.
Give and Take
Every member of a mastermind group will be in a position to receive advice and help from other members of the group. In turn, every member should do the same for other members. As far as masterminds are concerned, mentoring is a two-way street. Each member is both a teacher, and a student.
4. Contribute to the Group
Always remember that you are a part of a mastermind because other members want you to be a part of it, and because they value your skills and knowledge.
This means you will be expected to be an active participant within the group that will contribute ideas and expertise, instead of just being a passive bystander. As pointed out in a previous paragraph, it’s about giving and taking.
5. Trust Is the Key
Trust is one of the building blocks of every mastermind. Trust in your own skills and the skills of the people you will be collaborating with inside the group is what makes the entire concept possible in the first place. Each individual within the group needs to trust their collaborators with making the right decision.
6. Only Share Your Own Personal Experience
A member should always make contributions that are based on their own experience, or a strategy that is 100% effective. Contributing random or vague ideas just for the sake of contributing is of no use to anyone inside a mastermind.
7. Every Problem is a Challenge
When you are on your own, some problems can seem like insurmountable obstacles, but when you are a part of a mastermind, you are no longer alone, which means those obstacles are no longer as frightening.
Along with your own knowledge and intellect, you have to access the brainpower and expertise of other members of the group. In this case, problems become opportunities.
8. Breaking the Rules Equals Punishment
A mastermind can only function at its full capacity if all members of the group are present during a meeting. If by any chance a member misses a meeting, or breaks any of the group rules, they should be punished accordingly.
It is up to the group to decide what that punishment should be. It can range from a symbolic gesture to financial penalties, or even expulsion from the group.
9. Set up Communication Channels
Art of Successful Communication
Thanks to modern technology, a mastermind can even consist of people that are on opposite ends of the Earth. Organizing communication between members can be done in several ways, the most common ones being conference calls or group meetings on Skype.
Being a part of a mastermind can help you develop your business, but it can also help you grow personally, as a human being, by learning to collaborate and share with others. In turn, you will receive a new set of skills and achieve the level of success you couldn’t have imagined before.
