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In 1937 Napoleon Hill published his incredibly valuable book Think and Grow Rich![1] To write the book he interviewed and observed several of the most wildly successful entrepreneurs of his day. From these observations he produced a list and explanation of several practices which facilitated the outrageous success of these men. One of these practices is something called a “mastermind group.”
The mastermind group that Napoleon Hill described involved one key individual bringing together a group of people with differing skills, each of whom, in their own arena were arguably much smarter than the organizing individual. The organizer aligned the members of this group on a single challenge. Together, they achieved much greater success than any could have individually.
Many real estate gurus offer so-called mastermind groups. Unfortunately, what they are offering is not what Napoleon Hill described.
Napoleon Hill pointed to how Henry Ford hired brilliant people, many of them recognized experts in their own narrow field. and focused them on the problems he needed to solve to successfully build and mass produce inexpensive automobiles. Hill called this group Henry Ford’s “Master Mind” group. There was a single enterprise involved: Ford Motor Company. Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie each had their own mastermind group.
Instead of being a group of brilliant experts in a variety of disciplines and focusing their abilities on a single objective, these guru-led mastermind groups are a collection of neophyte students sitting at the feet of one expert, their guru, catching tidbits of information from him or her while sharing lessons learned from their own experiences. There is no unifying enterprise. Each participant is trying to build his or her own separate business, including the guru.
There are many good reasons real estate gurus don’t offer true mastermind groups. Without getting into all the details I will say simply that for them, the rewards are not worth the risks. So instead, they offer a thin gruel named after the rich feast.
Mastermind groups are a proven and powerful tool for success. Any mastermind group that doesn’t have the hallmarks pointed out by Napoleon Hill are not worthy of the name and will not yield the implied level of success for your business.
Four Characteristics of a True Mastermind Group
Four Characteristics of a True Mastermind Group
Group of expert individuals – they are each “masters” of a specialized body of knowledge
Each group member brings a different field of expertise to the group
One member is expert at organizing and focusing the group
Group energy is focused on attaining a shared, worthy goal
If you want to form your own mastermind group you must:
1. Decide upon your goal. This will be the focal point of your energy and that of all the members of your group. Without this focus you just have no more than a social club.
2. Decide what kind of specialized knowledge (experts) you need. These experts are the ultimate form of outsourcing. You are identifying what knowledge and skills you lack in order to succeed at your goal and you are offsetting your deficits by using these experts.
3. Identify what knowledge you need from each expert.
4. Organize the knowledge and put it to work for a definite purpose through practical plans.
“Knowledge has no value except what which can be gained from its application toward some worthy end.” Napoleon Hill
Tom Sheppard specializes in leading large ($10mm+) projects for US financial services companies. He is the author of The Art of Project Management as well as many titles about real estate investing and career management. He is a recognized expert in the fields of project management, career management, and real estate investing.
References
[1] If you have never read Think and Grow Rich! the time to remedy that is right now. It is required reading for everyone who wants to succeed in business.
#mastermind #guru #careersuccess #success
(C) Copyright 2020 Thomas K Sheppard and A+ Results, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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