Dar Kush: TAGR #9: The Master Mind

Friday, January 20, 2012

TAGR #9: The Master Mind

There are several principles in TAGR which, taken seriously, will nearly maximize chances for success in life. This principle is one of them.

The "Master Mind" clearly parallels the "allies and powers" step of the Hero's Journey. It is the "hypermind" created by your alignment with at least ONE other person, who is committed to your success, and willing to work with you in a spirit of cooperation. There are so many ways that this is critical to your success, so many things that relate to this principle. Here are a few of them:

1) You and your mastermind partner should meet (or hey...speak via SKYPE!) twice a week.

2) A total spirit of cooperation must be the first priority. Remove partners from your mastermind group if they cannot meet this standard.

3) Your mastermind group can grow as large as you wish, so long as this cooperative spirit applies.

4) The topic of conversation should be the plans and actions that can take you to your goal, and keep personal talk to a minimum.

5) Goals should be simple, compact and easy for all to understand. Everyone must be aligned on the achievement of the same ends.

6) The Mastermind must operate in a spirit of mutual benefit and welfare. In other words, it is totally possible for every member of the Mastermind to have a separate goal, and the group rotates between them.

The truth is that if you don't have enough knowledge to accomplish your goal, it is totally possible to work around this by creating relationships with those who DO have such knowledge. In fact, it is virtually impossible to create an ongoing enterprise without creation of a Mastermind, whether you call it that or not.

In my own life, my "mastermind" experience worked as following:

1) Writing: My mentor, Larry Niven, has been totally invaluable in working out my career. Other allies include my first wife Toni (couldn't have done it without her!), my agents, editors, and so on.

2) Martial Arts. Coaches, teachers, training partners, therapists (no kidding), gurus and so forth--people who helped me learn physical, mental, emotional or spiritual aspects of the warrior's path.

3) Relationships: role models, therapists, and most of all my partners themselves.

4) Financial. As I've said, money was never something I pursued directly, always a side-effect of writing and teaching, my real loves. I am correcting that now with a tiny number of partners who want to build what I call "Clickbank Robots." The requirement, for those interested, is a passion for some subject you would love to share with the world, and access to an audience of at least five thousand people. It is amazing how many people have both of these things, if they stop and think about it carefully.

The most important "Master Mind" partner you can have is your spouse. Life becomes hugely simpler if you have one person who can watch your back and share your dreams.

If you don't have a Master Mind, you could try joining the 101 Board (http://route101.proboards.com)

If not that, then it is CRITICAL that you be able to 100% rely on yourself, your own clarity and internal honesty. Meditation, journaling, daily re-writing of your goals, and serious inquiry into WHY you can't find a single person to trust. Critical questions. Critical answers.