Posts Tagged ‘Mastermind Groups’

What’s so good about a MasterMind Group?

A MasterMind Group is sometimes known as a peer group mentoring forum or a Boardroom forum.

These groups simulate the many different roles that it takes to run a successful business and giving a business owner independent advice from people with no hidden agenda.

I often get asked, “Why would anyone want to join a mentoring group with people who know nothing about each other’s businesses?”

There are three excellent answers to this:

1) The product or service a business delivers may be different but the process of running and growing a business has many generic activities. Almost everyone who starts a business has had experience of other businesses and brings many skills and lots of expertise to a group.

2) The process used in the most successful MasterMind Groups produces a situation where solutions are created from the combined efforts of the group members and do not rely on one person’s pre-existing knowledge.

and

3) One of the major benefits of a well run MasterMind Group is accountability. The members commit to certain actions and keep each other on track.

Napoleon Hill holding book 1937 Whats so good about a MasterMind Group? If people have heard of MasterMind Groups its usually in relation to Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich”.

Hill established that many of the successful people he interviewed in the 1930s attributed part of their success to meeting with a peer group on a regular basis to discuss ideas and create new solutions to problems.  He describes the process as  ” When two people come together to discuss ideas it is a s though a third person appears with ideas that the others would not have thought of on their own.”

What do a potter, a metalworker, a doctor an engineer and a preacher have in common?

There are many wonderful examples of MasterMind Groups working to create success for their members but for me, one of the most powerful examples occurred long before Napoleon Hill wrote his famous book.

When the potter is Josiah Wedgewood, the metalworker is Matthew Boulton, the doctor is Erasmus Darwin, the engineer is James Watt and the preacher is Joseph Priestly the ideas produced quite literally changed the world.

Steam trains, electricity, canals, mass manufacturing, the discovery of new gases, processes and materials accompanied dramatic social and educational reforms in the middle of the 18th Century that brought about the Industrial Revolution and great wealth but for the original group of friends the support they gave each other was crucial.

Lunar Society 150x150 Whats so good about a MasterMind Group? Known as the Lunar Society because they met when the moon was full to aid their journeys, these men worked together to break down physical, social and educational barriers.

The internet has brought down even more of these barriers and made it easy to collaborate, to produce great ideas and to take the idea of MasterMinds to new levels.

When Napoleon Hill wrote “Think and Grow Rich” he meant think as in develop the ability to think, to process ideas and solve problems. By rich he meant not just monetary wealth but knowledge, discipline and fulfilment of potential.

All of this is achieved by mastery of the mind.

A Master Mind Group is exactly that: an opportunity for you to develop mastery of your mind, to think and grow rich with the support of a peer group.

If you would like to join us or have questions about how to get involved, just give me a call on 07711 705038.

Why should you trust your business intuition?

web 300x248 Why should you trust your business intuition?

Crystal Ball by Adam Hawkins http://anodizeproductions.com

Intuition is a big part of business success for many people.

In a world where we are deluged by information and opinions, how do we make decisions?

Change in the business world is more rapid than ever before and survival requires unique strategies and different processes of decision making. Very often there is no precedent and therefore the rational, analytical approach is of little use.

The answer may be to trust our intuition more.

Intuition is part of our nature and many successful people admit that intuition is a big part of their success including Donald Trump, Oprah, Richard Branson and even Bill Gates.

Einstein and Edison described their creative process as having original ideas that didn’t come from the rational foundation of the mind. Jonas Salk, the inventor of the polio vaccine, says, ‘The intuitive mind tells the logical mind where to look next.’

Studies of Fortune 500 CEO’s found that the top executives relied upon quiet time, moments of prolonged inner reflection, to help them make better decisions. The inner connection allowed them greater access to intuitive problem solving which resulted in clearer thinking and more effective decision making.

What is intuition?

Intuition is a way of using the brain’s power without the constraints of logical thinking. We gather information from a wide range of sources and often get what is called a ‘gut feeling’ but all too often dismiss this because there is no logical explanation.

We are sometimes talked out of using our intuition and into logical decision making because we  can’t explain why some things just ‘feel right’ and yet when we look back these feelings are often proved to be right.

In our MasterMind groups I see lots of creativity that is born out of intuition. People come up with great business ideas all the time but what creates real success is the trust in their ideas and the drive to follow them through and bring them to fruition. It is often too easy and too tempting to stick with what we know rather than put a lot of effort into developing something new.

When intuition works:

Here are some examples:

Ray Croc bought the McDonalds franchise in the initial stages of its development for what was an exorbitant price. He couldn’t afford it but said ‘My funny-bone instinct kept urging me on.’

Conrad Hilton was bidding on the world’s largest hotel and the amount that apparently popped into his head was only 200 dollars higher than the next bid. He described problem solving as ‘I keep listening in a sort of inside silence until something clicks and I feel a right answer.’

Paul Fireman began the manufacture of Reebok shoes when the aerobic exercise boom was non-existent, using an innovative and extremely risky shoemaking technique.

When Jim Adamson was employed by Gap he discovered on a trip to the Far East what would be the first jeans to be imported into America. He purchased far more than was forecast to sell and the product still sold out in only a month. Asked why he didn’t purchase more he said, ‘I just didn’t know how good my intuition was.’

And that’s a lesson for all of us!

Tell us of your experiences where intuition has worked for you ….

 

Get your self a nag!

nag Get your self a nag!

To whom are you accountable?

If you work on your own, who is to know if nothing on your ‘to do’ list gets done? You can procrastinate for as long as you like and no-one but you will be any the wiser.

Most business owners who talk about time management don’t really need help in managing their time. They need someone to hold them to account for the results (or lack of) that they say they want to achieve in a certain time.

The thing that makes the biggest impact in our Inspired MasterMind Groups is that members are accountable to
each other for their actions.

If you are not a member of an Inspired MasterMind Group, appoint yourself an official ‘nag’.  Make it someone who has no axe to grind, no hidden agenda and just wants to see you succeed. Ask them to accept no excuses and make sure you keep on track with what you say you will do.

 

Ada Lovelace Day

Ada Lovelace Day is celebrated on different dates each year.

 Ada Lovelace Day

This remarkable woman was a skilled mathematician who is widely acknowledged to be the first person (not the first woman, the first PERSON!) to write computer programmes. In 1843 she wrote programmes that would have run on Charles Babbage’s ‘Analytical Engine’  the first programmable computer which unfortunately never got built. 

Ada even predicted that, one day, computers could be used to compose music.

Writer and software consultant Suw Charman-Anderson, who organised an Ada Lovelace Day, explains: ‘Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines.’

Amen to that!

More about Ada Lovelace Day | Complete list of all the ALD blog posts so far | Finding Ada on Twitter | The ALD pledge at PledgeBank | ALD at the Science Museum | Picture from Wikipedia

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