Its Not What You Know, Its Who You Know

In business, you often hear the statement "It's Not What You know, It's Who You know!"

Napoleon Hill introduced the concept of a mastermind group in the early 1900's. In his timeless classic "Think and Grow Rich", he wrote the Mastermind Principle: "the coordination of knowledge and the effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose, in the spirit of harmony." Hill also wrote, "No two minds come together without thereby creating a third, invisible intangible force, which may be likened to a third mind".

The powerful result of a mastermind group is that there is a synergy of energy and excitement that participants bring to the group therefore raising the bar by challenging and encouraging other members to create and implement their goals.

Being part of a mastermind group has proven to have many benefits to entrepreneurial success:

- Idea Sharing, Creativity and Brainstorming Information is one of the most powerful assets a person can posses and having the ability to leverage other people's information is exponentially better. Each group member will come with different experiences, perspectives and ideas that will most likely be your next big money making idea. The ability to brainstorm and be creative with a group of people all focused on helping you solve a problem is one of the biggest benefits you will experience from a mastermind group.

- Accountability and Responsibility Most goals are not achieved because (as business owners) we are not held accountable to anyone to achieve them. It is our business and we want to procrastinate or put task on the backburner because of other operational issues we deal with, which is our prerogative, right? The second biggest benefit of a mastermind group is that they hold you accountable to reach your goals and monitor your actions to ensure you are on the right path. They act as sounding boards, gatekeepers and test groups while asking you where you stand with your plan.

- Motivational Support Staying positive and motivated is a big challenge for some business owners especially after the excitement of starting a business has worn off and the business becomes work. Businesses have many different sides and not everything runs smoothly all the time. This can be very frustrating and cause many entrepreneurs to lose their motivation. By surrounding yourself with a mastermind group, you will receive positive encouragement no matter how you perform and the active discussions you will participate in will most likely inspire and stimulate you to move forward.

- Networking and Business Relationships A big part of being in a mastermind group is developing solid relationships with your group members. These relationships have been proven to last a lifetime and can be the catalyst for millions of dollars. You will form friendships and connections that will provide you more than just business benefits; they will provide you with a sense of belonging and being part of something special.

- Additional Resources In a year where time is money, having access to additional resources is critical to any business owner's success. By connecting with peers in your mastermind group, you will be provided with access to the resources that others in your group are using to achieve similar results. This will reduce the time required to find alternative solutions as well as the learning curve usually associated with implementing new solutions. Not to mention you will save time working within a group versus trying to figure something out on your own.

Article Source: http://www.mycontentbuilder.com


Kellie D'Andrea is the creator of the BLAST system and publishes "The Marketing Edge" a FREE award winning ezine for small business owners who want to gain the competitive edge with strategic marketing and branding techniques that actually work. Find out the 23 Common Mistakes Most Entrepreneurs make with a FREE report offered at www.KellieDandrea.com .

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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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