Leveraging Other People's Resources

Guest Contributor: Yvonne Mahoney
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I went to a couple of introductory talks this weekend on property investment and both made the point about leveraging OPM - Other People's Money - to raise the finance for property investment. It led me to thinking about how through the medium of the mastermind group, we can also leverage OPR - Other People's Resources to develop our enterprises.

The idea of using other people can seem a little exploitative and unethical to some people. However consider this in the context of a group of people who mutually exist to help each other become success and are willing to commit their time, energy and available resources to doing so.

Then its much more a win-win situation for all concerned to exploit the collective talent, mindfulness, contacts and other resources available within the group. In this way the individuals within the group gain far more than they could just using their own resources.

Of course its been done since time immemorial in a number of different ways. Consider the Co-operatives, the Masons, Boys Own clubs, and so on to name but a very few. And then, there is the Mastermind Group.

In a financial sense, when you leverage OPM, you are borrowing someone else's money that you can invest in a way that you intend to bring a far higher rate of return than you could do from the cost of paying the interest.

Within the context of the mastermind group, its connecting with others who want to share their ideas and information to help you solve the problems of your business and to grow. So everybody gets to accomplish more with less energy than they would if they were trying to move that boulder all by themselves

There are some groups you wouldn't want to or couldn't become involved in but the mastermind group is within the capacity of everyone to share in. If we look at a classic often held-up model of success such as Henry Ford, we have here someone who exceeded his personal capacity from impoverished beginnings, to become one of the richest Americans of his time.

Here's the thing though, he achieved most outstandingly during the time when he formed a mastermind alliance with other like minded business acquaintances, enabling him to leverage the combined knowledge, experience, intelligence and resourcefulness of the group to grow his business. And for ordinary people like you and me, wanting to raise the levels of success in our lives, the same principles can apply.

To quote Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich

"No two minds ever come together without thereby creating a third intangible force which may be likened to a third mind."

"A group of brains coordinated (or connected) in a spirit of harmony will provide more thought-energy than a single brain, just as a group of electric batteries will provide more energy than a single battery."

There are of course lots of other ways to leverage Other People's Resources. The power of the Mastermind group is but one. However, almost all successful people use leverage and a good mastermind group can make that happen. There is simply not enough of our own time, energy and other resources to achieve the success we require in the time we need it. And success isn't about extracting every last ounce of your own energy and resources to get there, for that carries a huge personal cost which may not sustain your success.