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Why Your Career Needs a Mastermind Group
Here’s how to build one for yourself
I’ve always hated asking anyone for help, a reluctance that can be attributed mostly to social anxiety and shyness (and also, sometimes, to pride or sheer laziness). Whatever the cause, I’ve spent most of my life trying to avoid it at all costs — but as I got older, those costs got higher. During a trip abroad, I wandered aimlessly around foreign cities because I refused to ask for directions. Early in my career, I missed out on jobs because I was too stubborn to ask for recommendations. “I’m a hard worker,” I told myself. “That should speak for itself.”
Which is why it felt like such a shock to the system when, earlier this year, I decided to join a mastermind group — a small accountability group that meets regularly to talk about career goals, brainstorm ideas, ask questions, motivate each other, and get support. Journalist and self-improvement guru Napoleon Hill coined the term in his 1925 book, Think and Grow Rich, defining it as “the coordination of knowledge and effort between two or more people who work towards a definite purpose in a spirit of harmony.” It sounds kind of mystical, but despite the dubious nature of much of Hill’s other advice, the mastermind group has caught on in contemporary career and business circles.
