What is a Mastermind Group?

Maybe you’ve heard it somewhere, in a networking meeting, on a Facebook post, or in a TED Talk: mastermind groups seem to be the key to success in your business.

You might have also heard that Napoleon Hill, business magnate Andrew Carnegie’s mentee, was the creator of the Master Mind concept, but this is not completely true either. As Moe Nawaz says in his book, “while this is the start of the promotion of the mastermind group in a formal sense, the mastermind group concept had been around long before” (and if you’re curious about this, you can read A Brief History of Mastermind Groups by Susan Henderson).

Ok, then… we know that they’ve been around for a while, yet these holy grails of success are not on our common language.

So, what are mastermind groups exactly?

The short answer would be that they’re a peer-to-peer mentoring concept used to help members of the group solve their issues with support and advice from each other.

Now you must be thinking, what the heck does that even mean? Well, let me take you to an example.

Sarah’s dream is becoming a writer. She’s been doing it since she was a teenager, but never held up the courage to show her writing to someone else –least of all to a publisher. She believes in the power of her stories but feels overwhelmed by all the great writers that there already are out there the competition. Also, she’s scared of facing rejection, because that might be just what it takes to push her to stop writing, and that could be the end of her passion.

She knows that for even having the slightest chance of being published she has to share her manuscripts with someone in the industry (not her friends) that could give her valuable feedback in an encouraging manner (not a publisher). Moreover, she needs someone to whom she can address always but also that would leave her free her creative spirit and make her own calls (not a manager).

Why choosing a mastermind group

Where can she get all of these things in just one place? You already know the answer: in a mastermind group (in this case, for amateur writers). The reasons? Let’s walk this through:

A mastermind group you already know

Now let me give you another example that you’re probably more familiar with: it’s an international association in which people gather in groups and meet together regularly to share their own stories and give support to each other with the aim of… staying sober. Ringing bells? Yes, it’s Alcoholics Anonymous. This non-profit organization has been uniting people that help other people to remain sober for decades in all corners of the world.

What are the key things that make us say AA is a mastermind group?

So, long story short:

a mastermind group is a bunch of like-minded people that meet regularly to help each other achieve a common goal.

As simple as that. You can have as mastermind groups as milestones you want to accomplish: writing a novel like Sarah, having a healthier lifestyle, managing your anxiety, completing a photography project, receiving seed funding for your startup.

If you’re now thinking that this is exactly what you need, then I strongly encourage you to look for a mastermind group now, or maybe start your own. If your idea is to use one for achieving your business goals, then I invite you to fill in the application form to join TheHive.

Still hesitating? Read what Stephanie Burns has to say about the benefits of joining a mastermind group in the article she wrote for Forbes, 7 Reasons To Join A Mastermind Group.

And if you still aren’t sure about what I’ve been talking about all along with this post, then leave me a comment here. Your feedback may be all I need 🙂