The Mastermind Group

I belong to an interesting little group of businesspeople. We call ourselves The Mastermind Group.



Paul Burri
As nearly as I can tell, we stole the idea from something suggested by Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich, written in the 1900s. We may have somewhat mangled Hill’s original idea, but the concept is very simple and it comes from the idea that “two heads are better than one.”

Here’s how ours works. We are a group of five or six local businesspeople who meet for breakfast every two weeks to talk about almost anything but mainly business-related subjects. We never have an agenda, but we always find something of mutual interest to talk about. One week it might be about competition and how to deal with it. Another week, one of the members may be having an employee problem. Still another week, someone may be considering renting or buying a larger facility for his or her business.

The truth is that most small companies have similar problems, even though they might be in vastly different business fields. All businesses have problems relating to customers, employees, suppliers, money, credit, insurance, compliance with various regulations, taxes, insurance, real estate — the list seems endless.

It often turns out that a problem I may be having in my business today is similar to one that another member has had in the past and successfully solved. Or perhaps another member can learn from a mistake I made in the past.



Rarely does anyone go away from a Mastermind breakfast without having learned something useful for his or her business. Beyond the camaraderie of our breakfasts, we have developed a sort of “brotherhood” of businesspeople who we can call or e-mail for help and advice when we need it.

Lastly, and not to be dismissed lightly, is that the group helps dispel the feeling of being all alone in one’s business. This is a phenomenon not often discussed. Many small businesses are owned and operated by a sole owner/manager who often feels all alone with no one to talk to about the day-to-day problems that arise. Sure, he can talk to his wife when he gets home at night, but it’s just not the same as talking to another person facing the same daily issues.

Our little group is always looking for one or two fresh faces. Alternatively, I would be happy to explain how to start and nurture a new Mastermind Group to anyone interested. E-mail me at pburri@west.net.

— Paul Burri is an entrepreneur, inventor, columnist, engineer and iconoclast. He is not in the advertising business, but he is a small-business counselor with the Santa Barbara chapter of Counselors to America’s Small Business-SCORE. The opinions and comments in this column are his alone and do not represent the opinions or policies of any outside organization. He can be reached at pburri@west.net.

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Networking : The Powerful Pillar of the Mastermind Group

If you own a small business, you need to become part of a network, period. All of the most successful people in business have been part of networks and you should to. You can't do it all alone and the benefits are amazing. Read on to find out about the power of the mastermind in networking.

There are three main pillars to a successful small business network:

1. The pillar of service- This is where you unconditionally help other members of your network so that they can grow their business.

2. The pillar of referrals- This is the goldmine pillar where you give and get free business by referring clients to other members without expectation of reciprocity.

3. The pillar of the mastermind- This is the basis of this article. The mastermind is the principle that a group of people working together towards a common goal is more powerful than each individual working towards it.

This principle was coined by Napoleon Hill in his world famous success book called "Think and Grow Rich." Hill used the term Master Mind. In the book he explains to us how the great, successful business owners of the past have used the mastermind principle to achieve unheard of goals against unbeatable odds.

Well, you can use the power of the mastermind as well. Once you establish your small business network, you will select a smaller group of people that you will be able to completely confide in. You need to make sure that these members are dedicated towards helping you achieve your small business goals. In turn, you will become part of other mastermind groups dedicated towards helping others.

Once a group of business owners take their individual expertise and put it together to help others, their power to come up with ideas and solutions is amazing. It's like taking the best part of each person's brain and mashing together to create a better brain, a mastermind.

Your mastermind group should be relatively small. There needs to be limit of 4-8 people so that ideas will not start to clash together. It's the same principle as having too many cooks in the kitchen. Your actual business network can have hundreds of members, but the mastermind needs to be a very small group, a chosen few. This group of people will stick with you for a long time. There are cases where these groups have stayed together for the life of the business.

Joshua Black is an on-line infopreneur, marketing consultant, small business owner and copywriter dedicated to helping the bootstrapping small business owner succeed.

Visit his flagship resource site for entrepreneurs at http://www.UnderdogMillionaire.com for the free Underdog Millionaire Wealth Pack: including 5 FREE e-books and daily wealth building tips for the bootstrapping small business owner- in the areas of sales, marketing, motivation, product creation and more.

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