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Excerpt from How to Create a Magical College Life by Morris Taylor
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Strategy # 23 - Form a MasterMind Group
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. Mark Twain
Read the above quotation again. It’s true. Have you ever noticed that successful people tend to have friends and work with others who are successful? This is no coincidence. When you surround yourself with people who are committed to personal excellence, you adopt their thinking, beliefs, and attitudes. If you want outstanding results, start hanging out with people who are either getting them or are in hot pursuit! This is the spirit behind the MasterMind Group concept.
The value of a MasterMind Group The concept of the MasterMind Group was formally introduced by Napoleon Hill in the early 1900s. In his classic book Think and Grow Rich, he described the Mastermind principle as “the harmonious alliance of two or more minds that create a friendly environment to gather, classify and organize new information for fast and effective implementation.”
A MasterMind Group is essentially a small, handpicked group of people who come together to assist each other to achieve success. Perhaps its biggest advantage is that the group helps its members to think differently; that is, to find solutions to problems using creative thinking that might never occur to the individuals if they were working alone. In this sense, the MasterMind Group is the perfect embodiment of the oft-repeated adage “the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts.” Participants in a MasterMind Group raise the bar by challenging one another to create and implement goals, brainstorm ideas, and support each other with complete honesty, respect and commitment. Because of this synergistic relationship, MasterMind Groups are mutually beneficial to all its members -- while someone is helping you reach your goals, you’re doing the same for others.
Forming a MasterMind Group Your MasterMind Group could serve many possible purposes, but as a strategy for college success, I suggest you form one that focuses on academic excellence. If this is your primary focus, it’s essential that you pick members who are serious and committed to this outcome. Your peers in the group will be expected to give you feedback, help brainstorm new possibilities and strategies, and set up accountability structures that keep you focused and on track. Along these lines, there are a myriad number of ways in which the members can benefit from the group. For example, the members can exchange study strategies, bounce ideas off one another for projects, critique presentations and papers, share insights regarding professors and their courses, or drill each other as part of their preparations for exams. If the right group is formed, they will become a community of supportive colleagues who will brainstorm together to move the group to new and ever-greater heights of success.
To begin, decide in advance how many should be in your group (five to eight is recommended), and how long the members will be asked to commit (e.g., one semester at a time, or for the entire year). Then look for people who you feel will commit to the purposes and standards of the group. It may be helpful if the first member you enlist is someone who can help you identify and approach other potential members. Since this group will focus on studying together to achieve academic success, it might help if most or all of you are pursuing a similar course of study, but this isn’t essential, especially in the beginning. Look for highly-motivated people who are willing to ask for help and support, and are willing to offer help and support to other people. Look for people who:
After your initial group is formed, you may want to add new members, either to replace those who drop out or to expand the group’s size and/or collective resources. Before deciding to let any new members join you, it’s important to “interview” them to be sure they’ll fit into the existing group and that their commitment level is high. Only allow new members into the group with the unanimous consent of the existing members. Some possible questions you might ask of potential members are:
· What do you hope to gain by being a part of this group, and what do you think the group could gain from you?
Even with a screening process such as this, at some point you’ll probably be faced with members who say that they’re committed but then don’t participate, or who fail to follow through on their assignments and thereby lose the group’s trust. If members fail to participate up to the agreed-upon standard, the group must be prepared to ask people to leave, and this should be done quickly once the poor behavior becomes obvious. Otherwise, the longer the behavior is overlooked, the greater the long-term damage will be to the energy and enthusiasm of the group. In sports, it is commonly understood that if you want to play at a higher level, you have to play with other people who are at a higher level. The MasterMind Group concept can help you to raise your game and keep it at a high level throughout your college career.
How to benefit from this strategy Set a goal to form a MasterMind Group. Review strategy # 8 to be sure your goal is SMART and to help you follow through.
Tested strategies for achieving college success! Copyright © 2005 by Morris Taylor. All rights reserved. Any reproduction, electronic storage, or distribution in whole or in part is prohibited. |
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