Perhaps the most powerful principle Napoleon Hill wrote about, and certainly the most enduring, is the ninth step toward riches: Power of the Master Mind.
The idea of a Master Mind group was created and expounded upon in Hill’s two classic books, “Think and Grow Rich,” written in 1937, and “How to Sell Your Way Through Life,” in 1938.
If you want to have a better, easier, more fun, more productive, less frustrating (sound good so far?), more bountiful and more profitable life, create a Master Mind. A Master Mind group can help you and your business succeed far better and far faster than you can on your own.
Hill defines Master Mind as, “Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.”
In other words, it’s people working together to find the “best answer,” “best response,” “best ideas” or “best strategy” to any situation or issue.
Of course, you have problems, issues and concerns. Do you think you’re the only person facing your issues and concerns? Come on, really now? My bet is that every one of your colleagues and connections has exactly the same issues. So, why are yours reoccurring?
Why didn’t that deal go through? Why aren’t your calls getting returned? Why are you having a challenge to set a meeting? Why are you having major blockage to get to the decision-maker? Huh? Why?
Because you have not yet created your own Master Mind, your own group of peers facing the very same issues in life.
Hill stresses and uses the word power in conjunction with Master Mind. He says, “Power may be defined as ‘organized and intelligently directed knowledge.’ Power refers to organized effort, sufficient to enable an individual to transmute desire into its monetary equivalent.?Organized effort is produced through the coordination of effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite end, in a spirit of harmony.”
He goes on in all capital letters to say, “POWER IS REQUIRED FOR THE ACCUMULATION OF MONEY! POWER IS NECESSARY FOR THE RETENTION OF MONEY AFTER IT HAS BEEN ACCUMULATED!”
Hill says, “Power comes from accumulated and organized knowledge.” That’s what the Master Mind helps build. He offers these sources of accumulated and organized knowledge:
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Infinite intelligence. This source of knowledge may be contacted with the aid of creative imagination.
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Accumulated experience. This may be found in any well-equipped public library. An important part of accumulated experience is taught in public schools and colleges, where it has been classified and organized.
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Experiment and research. In the field of science, and in practically every other walk of life, people are gathering, classifying and organizing new facts daily. This is the source to which one must turn when knowledge is not available through accumulated experience. Here, too, the creative imagination must often be used.
Then, Hill concludes, knowledge may be converted into power once organized into defined plans and explicit action.
Who should you ask to join your Master Mind?
Smart, positive and successful people you know and trust; people with both wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom is knowledge and experience applied. Invite someone you respect, someone willing to be open and to contribute.
A Master Mind has to be content-rich, to the point, value-based dialog – and it’s each participant’s responsibility to bring gold to each meeting and share it freely.
Jeffrey Gitomer, author of “The Little Red Book of Selling” and 11 other titles, is president of Charlotte, N.C.-based Buy Gitomer. He gives seminars, runs annual sales meetings and conducts Internet training programs on sales and customer service at Gitomer.com. He can be reached at salesman@gitomer.com.
