LinkedIn and Napoleon Hill

I was wondering what the connection was between LinkedIn and Napoleon Hill is.

Everybody who reads my posts knows about LinkedIn – but many of you do not know who Napoleon Hill was.

Napolean Hill was tasked by the richest man in America – Andrew Carnegie – to find out what makes a person successful.

He interviewed many of the most the wealthy people at the time to discover the source. The equivalent of speaking with Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and everybody else on Forbes 400 and more.

I have been reading Think and Grow Rich for the last several weeks. I am embarressed to say that it has taken me this long to discover the book. It is the absolutely amazing book on becoming successful. Its not really about money – its about acheiving ones dreams and goals.

There are 17 ideas that are key to the Napolean Hill philosophy.

In terms of LinkedIn – its Hill’s concept of a mastermind group. In a mastermind group you surround yourself with successful people and you continously review and share your plans and ideas with this group.

Immediately my thoughs came to LinkedIn and tyring to understand how it is connected to the mastermind concept.

I posted a comment on LIONS and MyLinkedinPowerForum within hours I received an response from Lucas, whose response has provided us (you and me) and terrific understanding of one of the more powerful aspects of Linkedin.

The mastermind concept is the real power behind LinkedIn.

What does LinkedIn do? It connects people. Many people use LinkedIn to find potential customers. It works amazingly well if you are a recruiter or a job hunter. But what if you take the LinkedIn connections and said – I AM NOT GOING TO SELL TO MY CONNECTIONS.

Then why did I bother having growing my network to 2,300 connections?

But – what if I said – I am going to use LinkedIn as my Mastermind group.

Whenever I make plans – I am going to have them reviewed by my mastermind group.

A major caveat here – I am not suggesting that we ask people to work for free. Asking a marketing consultant for marketing advice is taking advantage. But I don’t think asking a Product Manager for her opinion on your web site is taking advantage.

Through the process of asking for advice, you are creating a greater intimacy with that person.

Napolean Hill was also very clear on something else. You can not expect your mastermind group to work for free. They need to be receive some form of renumeration for their time or else they will stop. A thank you is just the start.

In my LinkedIn Articles My Blog I speak about always making sure that every interaction in your network leaves at least a little value with the other person. I think there is even more – you can ask a person for their opinion. That shows respect and allows you to move a little closer to them. Dale Carnegie says that a person’s favorite word is their name – I think that is true – but I believe a person’s favorite thing to talk about is their opinion.

In summary, Napolean Hill essentially became successful because he had a network of people.

The network was not where he made his money – the network was where he learned how to make his fortune.

Thank you Lucas for setting me in the correct direction.

Zale

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