Million Dollar Support System For You and For Your Business

Whether you are a consultant, coach, business owner, doctor, professional, corporate elite or student, whatever your profession is, moving towards your dream requires taking courageous steps. Making long-lasting changes requires us to create a network of support. Surrounding yourself with a community of nice-giving-good people, committed to their own growth, will give you tremendous emotional strength to move forward.

Napoleon Hill, the author of Think and Grow Rich, changed the lives of many successful business people. In this book, Hill shares the importance of creating and using the power of a mastermind group. A mastermind group is two or more people who come together to help each other toward the achievement of a common objective.

Do you need to improve your public speaking skills? You can attend the Toastmaster's Club. For your spiritual growth, you can attend a church and a focus group. To always be improving your professional skills, you can participate in special interest groups of your professional community.

Whenever growth requires that you move out of my Comfort Zone, can you count on a few special "nudgers" who will help you cross the border out of your comfort zone? Whenever you need to get back to the routine of exercising, do you have exercise partners to bug you until you get out of the door to accompany them to a workout. Whenever you need emotional support, can you call or meet with a few good friends and loving family members who care about you enough to listen to you?

I once thought that certain people are just more disciplined, energetic, organized, beautiful, healthy, fit, emotional stable, smarter, brighter, and higher achieving than others. Now, I am realizing that those who are so good at what they do have not only invested a great amount of time and effort but they have also surrounded themselves with people who serve to support their growth in specific areas of need.

Jack Canfield, co-author of New York Times Bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul, once belonged to a mastermind group that included a doctor, a consultant, a photographer and another author, an expert in the area of relationship who later also became very successful. They would meet every Tuesday morning from 6:30 to 8:30 before departing for their jobs. This required a great amount of commitment. Jack has shared that everyone in the group went on to unprecedented levels of professionally and financially success.


Challenge for yourself

To you, what matters most? In which area do you need a breakthrough? Can you think of three or four other people with similar values and goals with whom you could form a mastermind group?

This is more than just forming a circle of friends. A mastermind group is formed with a specific purpose. Make your purpose clear to the participants. This will ensure that everyone is clear about the objective of the meetings.

Is it for people that want to keep their marriage sizzling hot? Is it for corporate refugees that want to change their career? Is it for business people that want to get better at communication and leadership skills? Are you all business owners who want to expand your businesses? Are you ready to form your own support group for a personal breakthrough in the areas that matter the most to you?

Spend time thinking and defining what would be the focus goals of the mastermind group. Consider these suggestions:

- Be very clear about the area of support that you need.
- List the names of people that you think you'd like to be in your group, and put in your success journal - By (XYZ day), October X, I will finish contacting all the people on the list. You may be surprised to see how many people would appreciate you taking the lead to help each other to have breakthroughs in that area of your life.
- Your objective doesn't need to be grandeur; the commitment does not need to be long-term.

A few months ago, I was in a seminar of 25 people. I wanted to learn well a new skill. So, I sent out an email inviting people to see whether anyone was interested in meeting together to sharpen that skill.

Eight people responded. Five people faithfully stayed in the group. It turned out to be a relatively easy way to pick up a skill. In six weeks, we were happy with the results we each realized and decided to end our meetings. Since then, we have kept in touch, updating each other on ways in which we creatively use the skill acquired.

From small to big, the important thing is to learn to form your own support system. If you want to go far, you need people around you.

Helen Chen is a Business and Life Coach. She specializes in partnering with remarkable individuals in business to get out of their own way and take themselves to the next fascinating new level of effectiveness and profitability. To receive her FREE ezine with proven tips and exercises to take yourself and your business to a SUREFIRE new level of success, go to http://www.HYCCoaching.com.

In The News:

Yahoo! News: Top Stories

Palestinians survey a kindergarten destroyed after an Israeli air strike in Gaza January 8, 2009. (Mohammed Salem/Reuters)AP - The U.N. Security Council called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, but an intense bombardment of missiles from Israeli jets and helicopters early Friday and a barrage of Hamas rockets indicated there may be no quick end to the fighting.



Rep. Jack Franks (D-Woodstock) votes to recommend the impeachment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to the House during an Illinois House Impeachment Committee hearing Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009, in Springfield, Ill. The committee voted unanimously to recommend impeachment putting the matter before the full house.  (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)AP - Gov. Rod Blagojevich faces almost certain impeachment by the Illinois House, a historic step that would trigger a trial to determine whether the Democratic governor should be tossed out of office.



President-elect Barack Obama speaks about the economy at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va.,  Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)AP - Lawmakers are under orders to finish action on President-elect Barack Obama's nearly $800 billion economic recovery plan by mid-February. But already it is plain that a set of serious fissures need to be bridged if the bill is to be completed within five weeks.



Pay Equity pioneer Lily Ledbetter addresses the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008 file photo. Democrats are ushering in what they believe will be a new labor-friendly era in Washington with House votes on two bills aimed at helping women fight pay discrimination in the workplace. The House was to vote on the bills Friday Jan. 9, 2009, and they could reach Barack Obama's desk soon after he enters the White House.  One of the bills, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, is a response to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that made it more difficult to sue over past pay discrimination.  (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, FILE)AP - Democrats are ushering in what they believe will be a new labor-friendly era in Washington with House votes on two bills aimed at helping women fight pay discrimination in the workplace.



A sign instructs job seekers at the California Employment Development Department in Sunnyvale, Calif., Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009. The country lost nearly 2 million jobs through November and more bad news is expected this week when the government releases data on weekly jobless claims and December unemployment. No matter how bad those numbers are, and economists expect at least another 500,000 jobs were lost last month, the pain is stretching into 2009.  (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)AP - Trying to survive a deepening recession, employers are cutting their work forces to the bone, leaving more Americans unemployed and with dim prospects of finding a new job any time soon.



In this Monday, Dec. 29, 2008 file image provided by Greenpeace, coal ash slurry left behind in a containment pond near the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant is shown  in Harriman, Tenn., after the dyke at left broke Dec. 22, 2008. Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated. (AP Photo/Greeenpeace, Wade Payne)AP - Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated.



In this Dec. 5, 2006 file photo, Leon Panetta, then a member of the Iraq Study Group, walks into a Washington hotel.    (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)AP - President-elect Barack Obama is completing his national security team by announcing his unusual choices for CIA director and a national intelligence director who may face tough Senate confirmation questioning over how he confronted the Indonesian military when civilian massacres were occurring in East Timor.



In this Dec. 1, 2008 file photo, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, second left, speaks as Vice President-elect Joe Biden, left, President-elect Barack Obama; and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Rodham Clinton, far right, listen at a news conference in Chicago.  (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)AP - Just minutes after George W. Bush took the oath of office eight years ago, he signed papers formally nominating 13 Cabinet-level officials. Several hours later, the Senate, meeting in a special Saturday session, confirmed seven Cabinet secretaries, including the heads of the key posts at State, Treasury and Defense.



Florida's Tim Tebow celebrates during the fourth quarter of the BCS Championship NCAA college football game against Oklahoma in Miami, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009. Florida defeated Oklahoma 24-14. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)AP - Tim Tebow enjoyed the battering-ram runs. He liked the old-school jump pass. Drawing a rare penalty, that really made Tebow's day. With No. 1 Florida about to finish off No. 2 Oklahoma 24-14 for the BCS championship Thursday night, Tebow was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct.



Freida Pinto backstage with the best picture award for 'Slumdog Millionaire' at the 14th Annual Critics' Choice Awards on Thursday Jan. 8, 2009 in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)AP - The critics have spoken, and "Slumdog Millionaire" is their final answer.



Jaclyn Holt (R) fills out an application form at a job fair organized by the New Hampshire Employment Security agency in Salem, New Hampshire December 17, 2008. (Brian Snyder/Reuters)Reuters - U.S. employers probably cut the most jobs in at least 34 years last month as the global economic crisis gathered pace and moves by policy makers took time to filter through to struggling companies.



Egyptian citizens look at rising smoke during Israeli strikes at the Gaza Strip, in the Egyptian border city of Rafah January 7, 2009. (Asmaa Waguih/Reuters)Reuters - Israel pushed ahead with its two-week-old offensive in the Gaza Strip, ignoring a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.



Reuters - A report being released on Friday alleges that the U.S. Treasury has failed to reveal its strategy for stabilizing the financial system, not answered questions asked by a government watchdog, and has done nothing to help struggling homeowners, the Wall Street Journal said.

A pressure gauge is seen at a Ukrainian gas compressor station in the village of Boyarka near Kiev January 9, 2009 (Konstantin Chernichkin - UKRAINE/Reuters)Reuters - Europe sought a swift restoration of gas supplies on Friday after striking a deal with Moscow on monitoring gas shipments via Ukraine that have been halted by a pricing dispute with Kiev.



People taking the Long Island Foreclosure Tour arrive at a foreclosed home for sale in New Hyde Park, New York in this May 17, 2008 file photo. Citigroup could soon agree to principles that would let troubled borrowers save their homes through bankruptcy, sources familiar with the talks said on Thursday, while industry groups are easing their opposition to the plan. (Shannon Stapleton/Reuters)Reuters - Financial giant Citigroup Inc will support a proposal in Congress to rewrite U.S. bankruptcy law to help troubled mortgage borrowers avoid foreclosure, Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said on Thursday.



Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich gestures as he announces former Illinois Attorney General Roland Burris as his choice to fill the vacant U.S. Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama during a news conference in Chicago, Illinois December 30, 2008. (Frank Polich/Reuters)Reuters - A legislative committee on Thursday recommended the impeachment of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, citing widespread abuse of power including allegations he tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.



Timothy Geithner (R), pictured in Chicago, November 24, 2008. (Jeff Haynes/Reuters)Reuters - President-elect Barack Obama's economic team is urgently overhauling the $700 billion financial rescue package to broaden its scope beyond Wall Street, The Washington Post reported on Friday.



Usama al-Kini, Al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan, is pictured in this undated FBI Most Wanted photograph. Al-Kini, also known as Fahid Mohammed Ally Msalam, and a top aide are believed to be dead, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on January 8, 2009, in what appeared to be the latest results of a campaign targeting the militant group's leadership. Operations chief al-Kini was thought responsible for attacks, including the bombing of a Marriott hotel in Islamabad that killed 55 people in September, and an unsuccessful attempt to kill former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was later assassinated in a separate attack, the official said. (FBI/Handout/Reuters)Reuters - Al Qaeda's operations chief in Pakistan and a top aide are believed to be dead, a U.S. counterterrorism official said on Thursday, in what appeared to be the latest results of a campaign targeting the militant group's leadership.



US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks to an unidentified aide during a Security Council meeting at the United Nations. Israel and Hamas have launched heavy air strikes and rocket attacks on each other, ignoring a UN Security Council order on the warring rivals to end their conflict.(AFP/File/Timothy A. Clary)AFP - Israel and Hamas launched heavy air strikes and rocket attacks on each other Friday, ignoring a UN Security Council order on the warring rivals to end their conflict.



A man carries firewood in the suburbs of Sofia, Bulgaria. The European Union demanded that Russian gas supplies to Europe resume immediately now that details of a mission to monitor the flow through Ukrainian pipelines have been agreed.(AFP/Dimitar Dilkoff)AFP - The European Union demanded Friday that Russian gas supplies to Europe resume immediately now that details of a mission to monitor the flow through Ukrainian pipelines have been agreed.




Get Over Yourself

Let me tell you a secret.Things don't always go the way we... Read More

Teamwork Training: Learning to Build a Successful Team

Teamwork is a process that can be experienced outdoors and well as... Read More

Million Dollar Support System For You and For Your Business

Whether you are a consultant, coach, business owner, doctor, professional, corporate elite... Read More

A Leadership Screw Driver: The 90 Day Improvement Plan

I was talking with first-line supervisors in a utility company about how... Read More

Computer Consulting Profit Secrets

Do you own or manage a computer consulting company? Are you having... Read More

The Most Important Thing Youll Ever Do

The wellspring of confidence is belief. When you believe in something, you... Read More

Avoid These Seven Deadly Dangers Of Outsourcing

Here are seven dangers of outsourcing your software development. They become deadly... Read More

Recruitment - Pick People Who Think

Old style management doesn't encourage personal mind control, employees aren't encouraged to... Read More

Poor Employee Performance: How to Deal

KEEP WRITTEN RECORDS: "Document !Document! Document!" Keep a record of periodic performance... Read More

One Simple Idea to Grow Your Business

Perhaps the most common theme I've heard in working with business owners... Read More

Think Before You Talk

What you say to other people can make or break you and... Read More

Objects in the Mirror are Further Than They Appear

Definition From http://www.merriamwebster.com -- "Virtual: - being such in essence or effect... Read More

The Survey Feedback Process for Organizational Development and Change

THE PURPOSE OF SURVEY FEEDBACK:In globally competitive environments, organizations are seeking information... Read More

Déjà Vu MCI to Qwest International Inc: Can this Corporate Marriage Survive?

Current Situation:As of this writing, the MCI Board of Governors has given... Read More

Build Your Business (On A Shoestring): Hire a College Intern

Starting up a new venture or business can be one of the... Read More

Do You Really Care What People Think?

You had better care! Because what people think usually leads to predictable... Read More

How to Leverage Your Strengths for Peak Performance

Ask almost any business leader how to most effectively develop people and... Read More

Learn to Assert Yourself

Pinpoint your own blocks to assertiveness: fear of disapproval, need to please... Read More

Coaching Employees in the Workplace

After a full week of training, you are still a little nervous... Read More

Know Your Business! - 7 Key Questions You Must Ask

You need to know all that is going on around you to... Read More

Why Your Business Needs an E-Mail Policy

Why is it imperative to have a company E-Mail Policy? It is... Read More

Crisis Management Essentials - How to Communicate Effectively During a Crisis, Emergency or Disaster

A crisis, emergency or disaster can happen at anytime and anywhere.Just ask... Read More

Knowledge Management - Lessons Learned and How To Identify Them

Many organisations use the term "lessons learned" to describe the way in... Read More

Multiple Channels, Multiple Times

I've just been reading about the frustrations of a Human Resources manager.... Read More

Five Strategies To Strengthen Your Company?s Financial Management

Too many businesses wait until a crisis occurs before they start to... Read More

Managing Performance: Don?t Let Slackers Bring Down Your ?A? Players

As a manager, it is your job to ensure that the work... Read More

Performance Management Made Easy

Performance Management is a process that both employer and employee often fear!Why... Read More

Management Team Section of Business Plans

Writing an award winning business plan is a great skill, but rather... Read More

One Thing You Cant Hide

One of the most important of all motivators at work is consideration.... Read More

Punctuality in Business: What it Says About You

"Nothing inspires confidence in a business man sooner than punctuality, nor is... Read More

Management - Mary Poppins Style!

Mary Poppins describes a style of management which has for too long... Read More

The Inferno of the Finance Director

Sometimes, I harbour a suspicion that Dante was a Financial Director. His... Read More

11 Strategies on How to Work in An Open Plan Environment

Many work environments now are open plan, with only a few senior... Read More

Five Days to More Effective Inventory Management

The litany of headaches related to the implementation and on-going care-and-feeding of... Read More

Look Good on Voice Mail

Your use of voice mail tells others a lot about you. Here's... Read More

Negative Self-talk is Too Expensive

I'm always fascinated by the people who lift huge weights, particularly in... Read More

Ten Business Reasons Why Asking for Help Works

In fact, bringing your people - any of them - into your... Read More

Employees Commit Corporate Fraud

Imagine the following scenario; Ten years ago you decided to quit your... Read More

Indecent Proposal in the Workplace ? An Overview of Workplace Harassment & Employer Liability

An allegation of harassment in the workplace is a growing phenomenon facing... Read More

Are Your Marketing Pieces Up to Date?

The other day someone asked me for one of my informational brochures.... Read More

Human Resources: The Misidentified Subject

Interest in the field of human resources has exploded in recent years... Read More

The Rise of Corporate Chair Massages

Employers have rapidly begun to understand the importance of stress relief in... Read More

Muggers in Our Midst - When Rumour and Gossip Pay You a Visit

'I heard it on the grapevine' the old song goes. But the... Read More

Running Successful Meetings - The Key Steps To Getting It Right

We all complain about meetings which are a waste of our time... Read More

Innovation Management ? Flexibility

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation... Read More

Rules for Running a Meeting

As an experienced manager, I can announce without a doubt that the... Read More

Leadership Skills

Recent studies have shown that industrial supervisors are working at less than... Read More