Most of us have heard this or a variation of it ‘You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.’
Tony Robbins, Eben Pagan and Tim Ferris have all said it but I believe the originator was the late great Jim Rohn.
Your wealth and your success is dependent on the people you keep company with!
“What is Your Passion? What is Your Purpose?”
Are the people you’re spending time with helping you achieve this?
It is a fact that your lifestyle will generally reflect the lifestyle of the people you have in your life.
What is a Mastermind Group?
Napoleon Hill is often credited with being the originator of Mastermind Groups, but the truth is Mastermind Groups have been around much longer.
Mr Hill had a very simple definition:
The coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.
Ben Franklin is also famous for a Mastermind Group. In 1726, despite working from early morning to late at night in his print shop, Ben Franklin organized a meeting group called The Junto. This group met every Friday evening to debate questions of morals, politics, and natural philosophy, and to exchange knowledge of business affairs.
Two questions Franklin asked the group each week were:
“Who is thriving & why?”
and
“How might they be emulated?”
Wow! These are still brilliant questions today!
Look at what is working in another industry. Ask yourself why it is working. Then figure out how you might emulate this success in your own business. It might mean reformulating your products, adding new elements to your books and information products, or studying video sales letter transcripts to make your sales messages more compelling.
I have been a member of various Mastermind Groups – it has allowed me to make introductions and connections it would have just about been impossible to have done any other way. Many of those connections have gone on to become very dear friends and colleagues. Indeed it was through a Mastermind Group that we first met Craig Ballantyne – IncomeDiary contributor and author.
Yanik Silver Mastermind Group 2009, inc Mike Dillard, Craig Ballantyne, Andrew Lock, Bernadette Doyle, Carrie Wilkerson, Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher
Joining a Mastermind Group is also about giving back and helping others. When I first joined a Mastermind Group I was a little concerned that I would not have as much as some others to contribute to the group but it soon became clear I had skills and experience that others did not and vice versa. The common theme was that we where there to share and help each other and there is something quite amazing about witnessing a business problem solved by the group!
A Mastermind Group is for business owners who want to improve their business and who are willing to put the effort in. A Mastermind Group is not a Networking Group or A Coffee Club – it is for individuals who are serious about growing their business and who have the discipline to follow through.
Reasons To Join a Mastermind Group
1) You will create deep and lasting connections with some incredible people.
The life of an entrepreneur can be lonely – Sharing your dreams, aspirations and challenges with a group of like minded individuals makes it a lot less lonely! You will naturally raise your game as you spend more time in the company of these like minded entrepreneurs – plus of course the average of the five people you spend the most time with will change – for the BETTER!
2) To Challenge Yourself
A Mastermind Group will challenge you to grow your business to its fullest potential. In day to day business activity it is easy to get side tracked and way led – with a Mastermind Group you will keep on track.
3) Accountability
At the end of each meeting you will have an action plan, objectives you need to meet before the next meeting – which the Group will hold you to account for. It takes real discipline to succeed in any endeavour. Being held to account by your mastermind colleagues ensures you maintain the disciplined behavior necessary to succeed in your business.
4) Brainstorming.
Share your ideas and alternatives within your Mastermind Group. If you are not sure what to do next, what direction to go in, the collective power of the Mastermind will kick in and get you back on track!
5) Feedback
Receive feedback from successful individuals on how to solve business issues. Perhaps you have staff issues or financial challenges – let the Mastermind help you resolve them. Remember in the group we all have the same goal – to help each other grow their business. There is no hidden agenda – everyone is on the same side.
6) Support
Sometimes business is difficult and the challenges can seem overwhelming. Perhaps you have a difficult employee or a legal problem – chances are your Mastermind colleagues have experienced the same issue. You will never be short of alternative suggestions on how to overcome issues. Additionally you will develop deep and meaningful friendships over above all the business help.
7) Focus & clarity
Sometimes the day to day activities of running a business can distract us.The Group will keep you on track – just when you are losing focus, the group will remind you of your purpose and why you are in business.
8) Better Decision making
It is easy to put off a decision – but with a Mastermind Group you have your own due-diligence team to give you the confidence you need when making an important decision.
9) Increased Confidence
Better decision making means greater confidence – greater confidence spreads through your organization and inspires everyone to perform better. You will feel good. You will feel more confident.
10) Creativity
Looking for new ideas for your business? Have a new idea for your business? Want objective feedback and help with that idea? The group will provide more ideas and constructive feedback on your ideas.
11) Increased Profits
Many businesses leave money (profits) on the table – the purpose of the group is to help you take full advantage of all the opportunities that surround you and build your business into the huge success it deserves to be.
12) Discover new business partners and cross promotion.
Collaboration is the name of the game. You may find someone in the group that is a perfect fit to work on a project with you. Or, you may be the perfect person to help another member as well. The group works together collaboratively, to achieve more together.
13) Think bigger.
You can’t help but think bigger and stretch beyond your boundaries when surrounded by amazing people doing amazing things. Fellow Mastermind members will help you to see the potential you are missing out on.
14) Expand Your Skills.
Everyone in a mastermind group is unique in skill, experience and connections. Everyone is expert at something and as you interact with each other you will be picking up new skills and talents – all the time, working towards a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony.
There is a special energy that surrounds a group of success minded individuals – an energy that lifts the individual and the group. In a Mastermind Group participants raise the bar by challenging each other to create and implement goals, brainstorm ideas, and support each other with total honesty, respect and compassion.
15) Helping Others.
It was Zig Ziglar who said: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” You will get great satisfaction from helping other business owners in their businesses.
16) Hot Seats
The principle of a Hot Seat is that you get a chance to present to the group your biggest challenge or issue right now. For starters this helps you gain clarity on the issue you are facing and what you need help on. The Group in turn will provide you with a series of options and opportunities to follow up on and the person in the Hot Seat walks away with lots more ideas and solutions than they could generate on their own. In my experience, especially in bigger groups, not everyone will get an opportunity to Hot Seat every meeting – but even those not in the Hot Seat invariably walk away with new insights and ways of looking at things.
17) New Business Ideas
I have purposely not placed the reasons to join a Mastermind Group in any particular order – but on a personal level I would have to credit the generation of New Business Ideas as one of the biggest benefits of joining a Mastermind Group. These are ideas over and above anything I may have come across when brainstorming – these are completely new ideas, not even related to my existing business. Just being in the same room as all this superior business brain power has led to some of my best new business ideas.
“If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.”
– George Bernard Shaw
Business Integrity and Sharing
Successful Mastermind Groups are built on trust, integrity and sharing. Naturally the format of Mastermind Groups means that you and your fellow members will be sharing sensitive information. It is therefore important you understand the importance of holding a confidence. The Group facilitator will normally have established ground rules for the group that includes confidentiality. Typically what is said within the room remains within the room!
Closing Thought…
“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best” ~ Epictetus, (the Stoic philosopher)
Author Bio: Barry Dunlop is a lifelong entrepreneur who launched his first Internet Business in 1998. He also invests in renewable energy technology, Domain Names and Website Flipping. You can follow / message Barry on Twitter
Seek Out and Join a Mastermind Today!
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