Mastermind Your Way to Success

Every day more and more I become convinced in the power of the Mastermind concept as a way to more quickly create the level of success you desire for your business.

The concept of the Mastermind Group was first put forth by Napoleon Hill in his now famous book "Think & Grow Rich." Hill defined the Mastermind as "the coordination of knowledge and effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite purpose in the spirit of harmony."

When I went through my training with Anthony Robbins one of his steps to success including "creating a supportive environment." I would say there is no better way to create a supportive environment, and rapidly move towards the success you desire than to surround yourself with like minded individuals who you like and trust while also respecting their knowledge and expertise, with whom you can coordinate efforts towards a mutual definite purpose.

Over the last few months I've had the privilege of doing just that with three colleagues I'm excited about partnering with to help each other build our individual businesses in a collaborative effort.

The power of the mastermind works because each participant in the group brings to it not just their expertise, knowledge and effort, but also a database of clients and prospects that like, trust and respect them. Because each person in the mastermind has the trust and respect of their database they are open to sampling a product in any new venture. Thus all members of the Mastermind group automatically receive exposure to 3 times as many potential prospects as they may have otherwise if just marketing their business by themselves. This works exceptionally well, if the Mastermind partners have complimentary and non-competitive businesses (although as proven with our mastermind group, even partners in what could be viewed as competitive businesses enter the group with an open mind and look for ways to compliment each other, and carve out specific types of business they want to focus on attracting from the group effort).

Having just completed our first workshop I'm excited about the possibilities and look forward to the power of this Mastermind Group. If you'd like to see the fruits of our labor, go to www.SEAKSuccess.com .

What other business professionals in your area do you know, like, trust and respect that you could collaborate with and create a Mastermind Group that would propel your business to the next level of success, quicker than you could do it on your own? Make a list now, and set a goal to create your Mastermind Group within the next 90-days and look forward to a fall filled with even greater "momentum."

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Find Your Passion to Create the Discipline Needed for Your Business Success

What a great time I had the last three days on my journey to Atlanta, Georgia to speak to a franchisees conference for the Town Planner Community Calendar publishers. This was a group with a varied background and various degrees of experience with their product and in the business world. But, they all had on thing in common, and that was a passion for their product.

In sitting down with a group of them I was so impressed by their belief in the quality of the product and the value their product provides to their customers. Just being around them made me feel excited and proud to be part of them. It’s something I hadn’t felt much of since I left baseball.

I’m writing about this because I believe one of the absolute keys to success is – passion. Passion instills belief, and the one key ingredient necessary for unlimited success, what Napoleon Hill, the author of “Think and Grow Rich,” called “definiteness of purpose.”

I guess I would define “definiteness of purpose” as an absolute belief that what you wanted was so totally right for you that nothing would get in your way. From the time I was 7 years old and walked into my first major league baseball stadium, I developed “definiteness of purpose” towards a career in professional baseball, and I was able to fulfill that purpose for 20 years.

It's important to understand that "passion" creates "purpose" and the combination of those two emotions develops into the final key ingredient for unlimited success, "persistence & perseverance."

Which leads into my philosophy about “discipline.” I hear many people comment that “they just aren’t ‘disciplined’ enough,” or that “they need to be more disciplined.” And most times its from people that just can't stay on track towards what they say are their most desired goals and outcomes.

I’d like to take it from another perspective. As I mentioned above, I believe "passion" creates "purpose" which allows for "persistence & perseverance," making the concept of ‘discipline’ totally obsolete and unnecessary.

Think about it. Notice a time in your life when you were totally passionate about something. Maybe it was a relationship, or maybe it was a hobby. Either way you probably pursued it with a focused purpose and you consistently took action towards it with persistence and perseverance, didn’t you? In those situations there was no need to stay ‘disciplined” was there? It was automatic, wasn’t it?

Find your passion, and make ‘discipline,’ a non-issue on your path to building your business. After spending a weekend with publishers of the Town Planner calendars, I have no doubt this approach will work for them.

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Maintaining Business Momentum Through the Summer

It’s the first day of summer and time to reflect on the first half of the year and to commit to maintaining your momentum through the summer months. It’s a challenging time as we are pulled in two directions, maintaining focus on building our business, and rest and relaxation.

On the one hand we want to maintain momentum so that we don’t have a lull in business activity through the summer that leads into fall. Yet, we also wanting to find time to enjoy the outdoors, and create space for rest and relaxation.

The best lesson for balancing the two I believe can come from my study of the science of yoga over the past 8 years. The two philosophies I take from my yoga teaching and continually use to build my business, and teach to members of The Achievement Gym are...

1) the 3 P’s of practice – Be Present, Be Precise & Be Patient, and

2) Steady practice brings results, more steady practice brings more results.

If you want consistent results in achieving your business goals, follow those two philosophies throughout your year and you’ll be able to take some time off in the summer months and come back to a business that still has some momentum. As you know, it takes much less energy to keep the train rolling down the tracks, than it does to crank it up and get started again from a dead stop.

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True Success is a Marathon not a Sprint, Enjoy the Journey

The Achievement Gym celebrated it’s first anniversary today with the June workshop, and ten TAG members attended, and we focused on two of the 8 Core Strategies, "Creating a Powerful 1 & 3 Year Vision," and "Time Management & Finding the Time for It."

As The Achievement Gym heads into its second year, I’m excited that five original TAG members have decided to remain in the program for their second year. It was very interesting to hear the successes and the challenges of those TAG members as they began a second year building their business on their terms.

Due to their work over the last year in The Achievement Gym, they each talked about, and saw, their vision for business growth in a much different light than they did just 12 months ago. For that reason they will be embarking on a journey to build their business this year from a much different place.

Their commitment to the program reinforced my belief that true change and personal growth (and business growth) takes a minimum of three years to fully implement. Because of the magnitude of the 8 Core Strategies of The Achievement Gym it’s difficult to fully institute each of them into a business in just 12 months.

It really is a holistic approach to building a business from the inside out, and true success takes time. Members of The Achievement Gym that are serious about progress realize that true success is a journey and not a destination, and, to put it in athletic terms, success is certainly more of a marathon, than a sprint. Only those that are committed to long term, gradual growth can do so in a managed and stress free manner, which is the most healthy approach of all, isn’t it?

If you're stressed, frustrated and overwhelmed on your way up the corporate ladder, or while you are building your business, what's the use. Life's too short, there is an easier way. Take a step back, smell the roses, and enjoy the scenary on the way up the ladder of success, it's a beautiful journey if you'll just take the time to notice.

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