The topic this week covers Napoleon Hill's ninth principle of 13, the Power of the Mastermind, as laid out in his book Think and Grow Rich. Hill's principles teach you how to live a successful life. To understand how the power of the mastermind affects your level of success, start by examining the productive and nonproductive energy in group dynamics.
The Power of Positive and Negative Energy
I'm sure you've been in a meeting — with family, friends or at work — where the tone is so highly negative you can feel it. That’s because all energy is comprised of vibration, and in that environment, you experience discordant or negative and destructive vibrations.On the flip side, I bet you’ve been in an environment where people are together in harmony and working toward a common goal. In this situations, where teamwork is operating as it should, and you’re being creative and giving it your all, you feel great. You feel this way because the harmonious vibrations are putting you in line with the natural laws of universal creation.Knowing the above information shows the following conclusion makes sense:
If you can avoid discordant vibrations and put yourself into a place where harmonious vibrations are plentiful, you’re likely to achieve far more in life?
Become Part of a Mastermind Group
Hill believed, and I concur 100%, that one of the best environments you can find exists within a mastermind group. Before Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich, he coined the phrase "mastermind group" in 1925. He also created the idea of what a mastermind group would look like after studying the successful Americans of his time, including John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford and Theodore Roosevelt. However, Hill fully explained his concept for the first time in his book. At its purest essence, a mastermind group is two or more people coming together in harmony to solve problems and solicit advice from one another. It’s probably Hill’s most long-lasting contribution to society. Try a basic Google search for the phrase mastermind groups, and you'll get over 33 million results.The concept is deceivingly simple:
Gather a team of people with similar goals, purposes, life experiences or professional challenges together. You’ll benefit because instead of tackling problems alone, you’ve got an almost endless supply of creative knowledge, intuition and intellect to help. It’s like the old saying, “Two heads are better than one.” Well, six heads are better than two.
Gathering Your Mastermind Group
In assembling your group, you want people who challenge you and understand what you’re experiencing. Being challenged in the right environment will not create discordant vibrations; it will create harmonious ones as you work together to solve problems.To learn how to create or operate a mastermind team, I urge you read the following article, which explains it in great yet simple to understand detail: "How To Start and Run a Mastermind Group." Before you begin, examine what kind of people you surround yourself with.You may think you’ve already got a group of colleagues or friends who listen to your issues. To make sure, try the following advice:
Stop and look closely at the quality of cognitive thought, problem-solving and decision-making these people have.
You may also want to invite one or more people to a mastermind group. However, after you examine your conversations with colleagues, you'll most likely find many are not the kind who will constructively challenge you. It's obviously more comfortable to be around people who go with the flow; but how can you improve when the company you keep has no interest in seeing you improve or is only looking for help to improve themselves?Next, examine what kind of person you are. Think about what kind of energy you would bring to a mastermind group.There are four kinds of people in the world. Of the four, which kind are you?
1. Below Average
People who revel in gossip and the success and failures of other people more than their own fall into this category. They religiously follow celebrity media and live vicariously through others.
2. Average
These people recognize what’s happening in the world. They live a solid life, but based on things like watching the nightly news and reading the Internet, they believe that the conditions of the world dictate their success.
3. Above Average
This group talks about ideas and concepts. They prefer books over television and understand their personal success is dependent upon learning and applying ideas and concepts they’ve acquired.
4. Super Successful
People in this category develop their own ideas and visions and communicate with other super successful people about it. They also affirm that their success comes from their personal ability to think, believe and act with a conscious purpose.I’m sure it won’t surprise you that the people who join mastermind groups usually end up in the last two categories.If you're wondering how to find and establish a mastermind group that fits with your strengths and needs, I’d be happy to help you. Just send me an email, and I'll be in touch.
To catch up on my series about how Napoleon Hill's 13 principles help you live the life you desire, start here: "Fuel Your Desire and Live Your Dream."