What is a Mastermind?
The Mastermind Group/Alliance was a concept made popular by Napoleon Hill. Students of Hill’s philosophy are taught that a Mastermind is “A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose.”. The premise of the group is to allow members to experience accelerated success in their goals through the use of the collective resources of the group. The group allows people to experience greater commitment in their projects due to being held accountable by the collective whole.
Birds of the same feather flock together
The idiom has been repeated over centuries but holds true. Jim Rohn famously called it in his law of averages, “we are the averages of the 5 people we spend the most time with”. Consider the idea; that perhaps you are influenced by your friends, co-workers and family more than you would think. We live our lives believing we have autonomy to do what we want, the free will to fulfil our hearts desires but at the end of the day how many of us are truly fulfilled? Could it be possible that you could be doing better than what you are currently doing? Look at the people you surround yourself with, what type of energy do they radiate? do they elevate each other to greater success or do you find yourself facing negativity whenever you try step up?
Unfortunately due to the human condition whenever one member of a group elevates themselves they become a threat to the status quo of the group , and will generally face some negativity. The outliers presence will be a reminder to the others that they are not taking action at the level that they could be. Since humans generally favour the path of least resistance, the group will usually deal with the threat through alienation. It is much easier to alienate the high achiever than to step up and try and be like them. Look at any success story, generally the person who rose to ascension associates with a completely different group of people to the ones they initially surrounded themselves with. You almost never hear of beggars hanging out with millionaires, or fitness models grabbing some Mc Donald’s with their obese friends, the saying is true that ‘your vibe attracts your tribe’.
Why you should join a Mastermind
Obviously if you want to take things to another level and much quicker you must hang out with people on the same path as you, or mentors that you can learn from at the level you are trying to reach. Through the law of averages you will almost always end up like the people your surround yourself with. Imagine if you could hang out with Kobe, Lebron, Magic, and MJ for a couple of years, by default you would be able to play basketball at a higher level than the average player, dunking? no problem, if you hang out with these boys you could be a 5’7 thin white boy and will still be smashing buckets. It would be difficult to befriend such high end players, however you could start at a smaller level by playing with ballers that are better than you, and you will still get some benefits. The problem most people face is that they stay in their comfort zones with the same old people and at times they are ignorant about what is even possible due to never going out and seeing the world. I am not saying to get rid of your current friends, I am telling you that you don’t have to be limited in your success because of your current groups limitations. Hang out with them on weekends have a beer, and hit the clubs ( or whatever your group does), but make sure you spend as much, if not more time with your Mastermind group if you want to get to places. Some other benefits of these groups include:
- Networking ( you might meet your business partner in one of these groups)
- Cross promoting ( these groups could prove to be very lucrative in your ventures)
- Mentoring ( get advice from those that have already done what you want to do)
- Innovative ideas ( a group of minds is always more powerful than one )
Where can I find my Mastermind?
We are living in the digital world, we have opportunities that our grandparents could have never of dreamt of in terms of connectivity. Finding your Mastermind Group can be done in a few minutes, get your ass on google and hit the forums of the topics your in interested in. Many of these forums or social media sites have groups of people who are joined in a common cause. To find the right one look for the following conditions:
- The group that share the same common goal/values as you
- The group is positive and everyone is held accountable for their success
- People post often or have meetings in real life
- People in the group are actually adhering the the plan and taking action
If the group has all these elements, it will most likely be a quality group. Make sure you post often helping others, as well as showing your progress for the groups motivation, if the group has real life meetings or seminars attend them! the amount of value you will receive through actual interactions with group members could be tremendous. Good luck, now go find your Mastermind!