Gavin Bradbury unlocks the myth of Masterminds being an elitist process…
A ‘Mastermind’ sounds like something mysterious, highbrow or evil, doesn’t it? Something that happens in the shadows and contains only the elite select few who are the ‘chosen ones’, a cult even.
Well, it’s not. A Mastermind is anything but evil or mysterious, there are no shadows and no cult.
‘Masterminders’ are chosen though, that is true, chosen by themselves to enter a process that, when fully engaged, is guaranteed to elevate all aspects of their lives way beyond their expectations.
A Mastermind is about friendship, trust, advice, knowledge and leveraging collective experience for no reason other than the betterment of the lives of the others in the group. IT WORKS.
Before the Mastermind process, I was a business owner with all the usual business pitfalls and hurdles to overcome: cash ow, staff, suppliers, customers, trying to grow the business, trying to get just one day a week off, trying to have a life away from the business never mind a bloody ‘work- life balance’! (that one tends to still bite me on the ass more than I like to admit)
The real problem was that I was lonely, surrounded by staff, family, friends and people who had my best interests at heart, well that’s what they say but they usually just tell you what they think you want to hear, I had no one to talk to about the real problems I was facing, no one understood. No one in my world was qualified to give me advice on my business issues because they all had ‘jobs’ NOT businesses.
I wasn’t brave enough to try to mix with people who I considered successful because I was afraid they would laugh at me or they would ask me complicated business related questions that I couldn’t answer because I was just a butcher, so, I never did. When challenges came along I dealt with them and made decisions based on… erm… well, nothing really!
Every decision was made with two outcomes, good or bad, pain or pleasure, will it cost me money or not? No advice, no alternative options, no experience to draw from so eventually as I tried to grow the business I kept failing, making choices for the now and not for the future.
Not very smart if you want to reap the real fruits of all your hard work and risk as the business owner. I needed someone I could talk to, someone who ‘got it’… so after delving into the world of personal development I had the chance to join a Mastermind Group.
Now I could tell you that I went away and carefully weighed up the pro’s and cons and the effect the financial outlay would have on the business and how I worked out how I was going to take time away from my very busy business to be a part of this Mastermind but, I would be lying, that wasn’t me. I’m much more of a ‘this feels right’ kind of guy so I made an ‘ahh fuck it, why not?!’ decision and joined.
In the first hour of the first meeting I was petrified, not knowing what to expect, not knowing if I would be able to give the group what it needed from me as a member or if I would t in. By the end I realised that I had undoubtedly made the best move possible towards improving my business, financial and personal life.
Two days later I had sacked myself as the ‘manager‘ of my retail business, increased my primary business turnover by 30% AND created two new real businesses which just six weeks later, paid for my place in the group for the next six months.
Sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Well it’s not. It’s all true and it was only the beginning.
Simply by having three days of intense interaction with a small number of carefully selected, like minded business owners where the only focus is to improve each other’s lives is the most phenomenal accelerator to personal growth, wealth and fulfilment you can imagine. No interruptions, no distractions and great business minds produce genius ideas I would never have evolved alone.
I don’t make statements like this lightly but I can honestly say that my life has changed direction so drastically since meeting my guys that I do not know how much longer my businesses or personal life would have lasted had I continued down the path I was on.
Having people look at your situation from many different angles, many of which you can’t see when you’re living them, provides such a high level of clarity and pushes you forward in ways you never imagined.
It’s like being handed the key to the safe in your mind, where the ‘best’ you is locked away and freeing your endless potential.
I’m never lonely for long now, and by long, I mean more than a few hours. I’m not a religious man by any means but I do feel truly blessed to be in a Mastermind with such great, switched on, caring people.
It’s a warm fire in what can be a cold lonely world. My life and most importantly my wife are happier for it.
