The Napoleon Hill Mastermind Principle

John Rogers — May 3, 2018

This blog explains the principle of the Mastermind group as laid out by Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich. We describe the following:

• The criteria for starting or joining a Napoleon Hill Mastermind group
• The benefits of belonging to one.
• The reason so many Mastermind alliances fail, and how to make sure yours succeeds.

Napoleon Hill is clear about the criteria for a Mastermind alliance.

• Two or more people
• Combining knowledge and effort
• A spirit of perfect harmony
• The attainment of a definite and specific purpose

When people with different backgrounds and skill sets come together to help each other achieve their goals, that’s a mastermind. Hill addresses the Mastermind in all of his important works including The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons as well as his classic Think and Grow Rich.

The Napoleon Hill Mastermind provides what Hill describes as a master-key to success. You can use it to, “open the door to the attainment of your definite major purpose in life.”

Why create a Napoleon Hill Mastermind Alliance

While researching and organizing Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill interviewed almost all of the most successful men of the late 19th and early 20th centuries in America. What he found was that much of their success was due to their knowledge and application of the mastermind principle.

Why is a mastermind so powerful?

• It empowers members to share skills and resources to help tackle each others’ problems
• The group holds its members accountable
• Masterminds help you create value for others, which is essential to being successful
• Napoleon Hill masterminds have an almost spiritual ability to create wisdom that wouldn’t exist otherwise

Are you interested in joining a mastermind of members dedicated to taking action every week to achieve their financial goals? Join the Wealth Creation Mastermind for FREE today.

Napoleon Hill Mastermind Value #1: Sharing Skills

A well-built mastermind will have multiple people with different skill sets, be they in marketing, operations, carpentry, design, or something else. When you bring a problem to the mastermind, you get the benefit of all of the members’ skills, resources, and even sometimes capital to help you see the problem in a new light and identify fixes.

If you’re struggling to bring in more clients on a limited sales budget, then maybe one of the business owners in the group ran into this exact problem in the past and can help you solve it. 

Napoleon Hill Mastermind Value #2: Accountability

A good mastermind will hold its members accountable. In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill stresses that “organized action” is critical to success. It’s not enough to simply make plans and then wish for them to come about. To succeed, you have to make organized, intelligent plans and then follow through with them. A good mastermind will hold you accountable and keep you moving towards your goals.

The world is changing at an increasingly rapid rate. Because of the pace of technological development, advances are accelerating in almost every area of life. To succeed in this fast-paced world, you need to be fast-paced. That doesn’t mean taking thoughtless action; but it does mean executing quickly and efficiently once you have a strong and well-thought-out plan.

Napoleon Hill called the concept of organized action, “power.” “Organized and intelligently directed effort and knowledge,” is the definition of power.

According to Hill, power is produced through:

• coordinated effort
• between two or more people
• working toward a definite objective
• in a spirit of harmony

The three most important factors that make up the equation for organized effort are:

1. Concentration
2. Co-operation
3. Co-ordination

It’s not enough to just have knowledge, ideas, or vague goals. You have to convert knowledge into personal power. How? By organizing your ideas into definite plans and expressing those plans in terms of action.

The easiest and most efficient way to produce power–that is, to generate the organized action that leads to real results–is to form a Mastermind. 

Napoleon Hill Mastermind Value #3: Adding Value for Others

Success has to be planned and earned in advance. It’s the old idea the before you receive, first you must give. Creating and participating in a Napoleon Hill mastermind group is one way of providing service to others, because when they bring their problems to the group, you can help to solve those problems.

It’s counter-intuitive, but success at the higher brackets can be achieved only by bringing others along with you. No-one gets rich by only caring about themselves, or by trying to get ahead at other peoples’ expense. We get rich by offering value to others. And even if you could get rich at others’ expense, helping others is more fulfilling and imparts more happiness. A mastermind is one of the best ways to do this. 

Napoleon Hill Mastermind Value #4: The Spiritual Component

In Think and Grow Rich, Hill argues that there’s another benefit to masterminds. According to Hill, when two or more minds come together in a spirit of harmony, they open themselves up to what he calls Infinite Intelligence. According to Hill, “No two minds ever come together without, thereby, creating a third, invisible, intangible force which may be likened to a third mind.”

This Infinite Intelligence is like a powerful intuition, or a wise advisor. By opening yourself up to it (that is, by being an active part of the mastermind), you’ll naturally find yourself getting better ideas than you thought possible.

The great American free enterprise system is built on the mastermind principle illuminated in Think and Grow Rich. When you form a true mastermind alliance with others and work with them in a spirit of perfect harmony, you can draw freely on the spiritual forces within you in carrying out your plans and desires. The Mastermind principle can give you absolute protection against failure, provided that your purpose in using this principle is always beneficial to everyone you influence. 

Concrete Benefits of Joining a Mastermind

Hill claims that anyone who adopts the mastermind principle can promote themselves to a higher income. A Napoleon Hill Mastermind group can empower you to increase your own income and promote yourself to a higher position, because you’re working with the combined expertise of multiple people instead of just your own skills. With it, Hill proclaims you can write your own price tag, fix your own wages, establish your own working hours and give yourself financial independence.

Joining the right mastermind can dramatically enhance your income potential. We highly recommend that you join the Wealth Creation Mastermind for FREE today.

Famous Napoleon Hill Masterminds

A mastermind is simply two or more people who come together in a spirit of harmony, and who seek to work together to accomplish the same goal. Many of the most successful businesses in the world were the product of masterminds.

Famous examples include:

• Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak – Apple
• Bill Gates and Paul Allen – Microsoft
• Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard – Hewlett Packard
• Mike Maloney and Mike Evans – GrubHub
• John Ferolito and Don Vultaggio – AriZona Tea
• Sergey Brin and Larry Page – Google

Here’s a link to a Business Insider article that will give a bit more insight into successful Mastermind Alliances: 10 insanely successful co-founders and why their partnerships worked.

Why So Many Masterminds Fail

There is a reason that most Mastermind groups fail. Napoleon Hill alludes to it. But because he never explicitly identifies it, many miss it. We’re going to lay it out explicitly with an example.

The Continental Congress might be the most successful Mastermind alliance in history. Every member of the Congress knew that, when they declared their independence from Great Britain, it could only end in two ways: in victory, or death. As Benjamin Franklin told the Continental Congress right before they signed the Declaration of Independence, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”

The Founding Fathers had skin in the game, and that was critical to their success.

The other critical factor to the success of the Continental Congress was its purpose. What they proposed was treason. They proposed to forcibly defy the most powerful nation of the time, and launch a new nation that was sovereign unto itself. This was a big, bold, and glorious purpose.

In the words of Daniel H Burnham (1846-1912), remembered as a great architect and planner, ”make no little plans for they have no magic to stir men’s blood.”

The Continental Congress also had a more magnanimous goal than just personal enrichment. If all they wanted was personal success, then they wouldn’t have risked their lives in open rebellion. Instead, they sought to benefit every American by establishing a nation of freedom.

So, to establish a truly effective mastermind, you need the following:

• Every member needs some skin in the game
• A big, bold purpose
• A vision that will benefit lots of people, not just yourself

 
Before forming or joining any Napoleon Hill Mastermind Group, always ask if the purpose is big, bold and beneficial to all. Lots of masterminds fail because they lack one or more of these criteria.
 

The Wrong Mental Energy

The wrong mindset is the other big reason why many masterminds fail.

You can make the most of your participation in a Mastermind group by controlling your mental attitude. You are where and what you are because of your mental attitude and how you relate to others. If you expect friendly cooperation in return, then make yourself friendly and agreeable.

Remember that your mental attitude is the one and only thing that you have complete control of. A positive attitude leads to positive outcomes. Indifference will get you precisely nowhere. A negative mental attitude with bring you nothing but failure. Changing your attitude can be a big task, but if you’re going to succeed with a mastermind, then it’s critical to bring the right mindset.

Unfortunately, many so called masterminds that have come together are little more than glorified support groups. Members complain about their lives, are comforted by the group, and never have an impetus to improve. These groups would not qualify as a Napoleon Hill Mastermind Group.
 

Not Enough Activity

The human brain is like an electric battery, and in a mastermind those batteries form a circuit. The more batteries that power a circuit, the more potent it is. A mastermind in which only one person participates is like a college lecture: it can illuminate concepts, but it won’t lead to dramatic life change. Masterminds with only a few participants, like circuits with only 1 or 2 working batteries, sputter out and fail.

The best masterminds have lots of active participants, engaged and speaking up and contributing. This lifts the energy and output of the entire group.
 

Action steps

If you’re interested in dramatically increasing your wealth and overall success, then consider the following three action items:

1. Decide definitely where you want to be and what you wish to be doing in three years from now.
2. In addition, decide how much money you will to be making and what you are going to do to earn it.
3. Finally, either join an existing Mastermind group, or form one with someone you trust and at least one other person with whom you are doing business now.

 
If you’re looking for an existing mastermind, then we highly recommend that you fill out the form on this page to join the Wealth Creation Mastermind.
 

The Wealth Creation Mastermind

The Wealth Creation Mastermind is a classic Napoleon Hill Mastermind. We’re a group of entrepreneurs and corporate executives working together to apply the creative method for abundance. We have a big vision (leading one million people around the globe into lives of prosperity and meaning) and we all have skin in the game. We’re dedicated to reading and applying the insights of men like Napoleon Hill, in order to achieve prosperity and happiness.

If you would like to join us, then we highly recommend that you fill out the form on this page to join the Wealth Creation Mastermind.

John Rogers

John Rogers has been in the network marketing industry for over 20 years. He has earned the prestigious Blue Diamond rank with Univera, the highest rank that the health- and wellness-focused network marketing company offers. His team represents 60% of Univera’s annual sales in North America.  John was recognized as the Univera Associate of the Year in 2015.

John has also been associated with 2 other network marketing companies and achieved a Platinum rank with Nikken, a Japanese health and wellness company.

John is the former CEO of Premium Enterprises. He has a Masters degree in education (M.Ed.) from the University of Northern Colorado (graduated 1973) and is passionate about teaching fellow network marketers to replicate his success.