The 9th Essential of Success, the Master Mind, is recognized as a key method in the boosting of the power, and hence likelihood of success.
In ‘Think and Grow Rich,’ Napoleon Hill defines power as ‘organized and intelligently directed knowledge.’ He also says that there are three ways that power is acquired:
- ‘Infinite Intelligence’ – the greater faculty of the mind to solve any problem.
- Accumulated experience – practical knowledge acquired over time.
- Research and Experimentation – when the required knowledge is not known to anyone, this is the way to acquire it.
These three things can be exercised by the individual, but greater efficiency is obtained if individuals work together. This principle is known as the ‘Master Mind.’
There are 2 aspects of the Master Mind: Economic and Psychic.
The economic characteristics are as follows.
You can view the brain metaphorically as a battery. A battery is a great source of power but that power is related to the capacity of the battery – i.e, the number of electrochemical cells it has.
Likewise the brain is also made up of ‘cells’ – neurons. More specifically, the power of the brain is built upon the number of neural pathways and connections between cells. Every time we learn something we lay down a new pathway or pathways.
Despite the immense power of the human brain, it is not infinite. Furthermore, whilst it’s potential is great, most people never fully realize that potential. This is because at any one time we are only consciously using 4 to 5% of our brain’s capacity.
In order to overcome the limitation of one particular ‘brain unit’ or ‘mind unit,’ the Master Mind principle states that people joining together in ‘harmony’ or ‘co-operation’ will achieve a goal more efficiently than each individual on his or her own. Indeed, the net effect is almost always more than the sum of the parts.
The key here is ‘harmony’ or ‘co-operation’ – a common goal is required and there must be things in place such as empathy and compassion.
You see it everywhere in human society. It is a natural consequence of socialization. From the beginning of recorded history (and probably well before), mankind has traded within, and the net result usually benefits all. It is only in the absence of the above that things go wrong.
The ‘Psychic’ aspect of the Master Mind is somewhat problematic. There are those that believe in telepathy and in other ways that brains can communicate with each other. However, to date no hard proof exists of these ways.
Likewise those who believe in the Law Of Attraction (see this article) often misinterpret what this law says. They believe that all you need to do is ‘send a request to the Universe’ to get what you want. In reality, things that seem to be fortunate are just that. They are just random events that happen to be in your interest. Invariably, ‘sending a request’ is your mind setting itself up to a course of behaviors and action that will eventually get what you want – provided you know and exercise the required action!
Our brains function on stimulus. This can be by any of the established 5 senses of sight, touch, sound, taste and smell. Things like intuition are not necessarily ‘psychic’ but are simply the results of deep and subconscious analysis by the brain.
The power of the master mind is built on the idea that ‘2 heads are better than 1.’ Or if you like, ‘many hands make light work’. As in the division of physical labor, the master mind is more about the division of psychological labor.
How this impacts on being successful is easy to comprehend. If you have an idea to make money or any other thing that you want, enlisting a team of helpers is going to make things easier for you than if you tried to do it all yourself.
It’s fairly easy to set up a ‘Master Mind’ group for whatever you want. Check out the web site ‘Meetup‘ where you can find groups set up for just about any interest you have. Or you can set up your own Meetup as well.
