MASTERMIND
The second principle of Your Right to Be Rich is the Mastermind. It has been referred to as the very hub or axis of the entire philosophy. This principle consists of an alliance of two or more minds working in perfect harmony for the attainment of a definite objective. According to Dr. Hill, no one has ever attained outstanding success in any calling without applying this principle. This is because no mind is complete by itself. Every mind needs association and contact with other minds in order to grow and expand. The achievements that can result from that contact and association are truly awe inspiring.
The first premise is that the mastermind principle is the medium through which one may procure the full benefits of the experience, the training, the education, and the specialized knowledge and influence of others as completely as if their minds were in reality one zone. Isn’t that a marvelous state to contemplate? Whatever it is that you lack in education, or knowledge, or influence, you can always obtain it through somebody who has it. Exchange of favors and exchange of knowledge is one of the greatest exchanges in the world. It’s a very nice thing to engage in business where the exchange of money makes you a profit, but I would much rather exchange ideas with somebody. Give me an idea I didn’t have before, and in which I receive in return more than I had before, and I will do it.
Thomas A. Edison was perhaps the greatest inventor the world had ever known. He was dealing all the time with science and yet he knew nothing at all about science. It would seem impossible for a man to succeed in any undertaking unless he was educated in that field. I was astounded when I first talked to Andrew Carnegie, and he told me that he personally didn’t know anything about the making or the marketing of steel. I was so astounded at that statement, I said, “Well, Mr. Carnegie, that probably isn’t your part here. What part do you play?” He said, “I’ll tell you the part that I play. My job is to keep the members of my mastermind allegiance working in a state of perfect harmony.” And, I asked, “Is that all you have to do?” He replied, “Have you ever tried to get any two people to agree on anything for three minutes at a time in your life? Try it someday and see just what kind of job it is to get people to work together in the spirit of harmony. It is one of the greatest of human achievements.” And, then Mr. Carnegie elaborated on his mastermind group, describing each one individually and telling me what part each one played. One was his metal jurist, one was his chief chemist, one was his plant’s work manager, one was his legal advisor, one was the chief of his financial staff, and so on. There were over twenty men working together whose combined education, experience, and knowledge constituted all that was known about the making and marketing of steel at that time. Mr. Carnegie said it wasn’t necessary for him to know about it because he had men all round him who did understand the making and marketing of steel, and that it was his job to keep them working in perfect harmony.
The second premise proves that an active allegiance of two or more minds in a spirit of perfect harmony for the obtainment of a common objective actually stimulates each individual mind to a higher degree of courage than that which would ordinarily be experienced. This prepares the way for that state of mind known as faith. In driving an automobile, sometimes the battery runs down. Maybe you have to go somewhere, but when you step on the starter, nothing happens. I know people who get out of bed in the morning and do the same thing. Nothing happens, except they feel badly. They don’t want to put on their shoes, they don’t want to get dressed, and they don’t even eat breakfast. What do they need? They need their batteries charged, of course, and fortunately, they have to have a source for doing it. It’s a mighty fine thing if a man gets up in the morning feeling like that, and if he can have a little talk with his wife and she’s a good communicator, she helps to charge his batteries. The change appears when he comes home that night with all of the rabbit skins that he went out to get.
The third premise states that a mastermind allegiance properly conducted stimulates each mind in the allegiance to move with enthusiasm, personal initiative, imagination, and courage to a degree far above that which the individual experiences when moving without such an allegiance.
In my own early beginning, I had a mastermind allegiance of three people: Mr. Carnegie, my stepmother, and me. We three people nursed this philosophy through the stages when everybody else was laughing at me and making fun of me for undertaking to serve the richest man in the world for twenty years without any compensation. There was a lot of logic to what they were saying because at that time I wasn’t getting very much compensation out of it—in the way of money at least. There came a time, however, when the laughing was on the other side of the fence, but that took a long time. I assure you there were plenty of blood and tears before I got to the point when I could laugh back when people laughed at me. Nonetheless, the relationship among us three people, my stepmother, Mr. Carnegie, and myself, enabled me to offset all the fun-making that was thrown at me by my relatives and my friends and everybody who knew what I was engaged in.
If you undertake anything above mediocre, you’re going to meet with opposition. You’re going to meet with people who’ll charge you and poke fun at you. Most of them will be right there close to you, perhaps even your own relatives. You need some source to which you can turn when you are going to aim above mediocre, to get your batteries charged and to keep them charged, so that you won’t quit when the going is hard and so you won’t pay any attention when somebody criticizes you.
Criticism falls off my back just like water off of a duck’s back, or more like a bullet off of a rhinoceros’s hide. I’m absolutely immune to all forms of criticism, whether it’s friendly or unfriendly. It makes no difference to me whatsoever. I’m just immune to it, that’s all. I became immune because of my relationship with certain people to whom I built up immunity under my mastermind allegiance. If it had not been for the relationship with my stepmother and Mr. Carnegie, I wouldn’t be standing here talking to you, you wouldn’t be here as students in the philosophy, and this philosophy would not be spread all over the world—helping millions of people. I had at least a million opportunities to quit, and every one of them looked very alluring, and sometimes it seemed I was stupid if I didn’t quit.
I could always go back to Mr. Carnegie. I could always run to my stepmother; we’d sit down, have a little chat, and she’d say, “You’ll come out on top, I know you will.” At a time when I didn’t have two nickels to rub together (at least that’s what my enemies were saying about me), my stepmother said, “You are going to be the richest member of the Hill family. I know it because I can see it in the future.” Well, if you would take all of my riches and put them together, I suspect that I do have more riches than all of my relatives put together for three generations back, on both sides of the house. My stepmother could see that. She could see what I was doing. It was bound to make me rich, and I’m not making reference only to monetary riches. I’m referring to those higher and broader riches, which let you render services to so many people.
The fourth premise of an effective mastermind allegiance is that it must be active. Don’t just form an allegiance and say, “That’s it, we’ve got it. I’m lined up with this person, that person, and the other person, and we’ve got a mastermind allegiance.” It amounts to absolutely nothing until you become active. Every member of the allegiance has got to step right in and start pitching—mentally, spiritually, physically, financially, and in every way that is necessary. They must engage in the pursuit of a definite purpose and they must move with perfect harmony.
Do you know the difference between perfect harmony and ordinary harmony? How many of you have ever had a relationship of perfect harmony with anybody? I suspect I have had good harmony with about as many people as, maybe more people than, any person living today. However, perfect harmony in a relationship is a rare thing in this world. I could count on the fingers of my two hands all of the people that I now know with whom I have a relationship of perfect harmony. I have a speaking acquaintance, actually a very nice polite speaking acquaintance, with a lot of the people, but that’s not perfect harmony. I have a working allegiance with a lot of people, but that’s not perfect harmony.
Perfect harmony exists only when your relationship to the other fellow is such that if he wanted everything you have, you’d willingly turn it over to him. It takes a lot of unselfishness to put yourself in that frame of mind. Mr. Carnegie stressed time and time again the importance of this relationship of perfect harmony. He said if you don’t have perfect harmony in a mastermind allegiance, it’s not a mastermind allegiance after all. It’s just a cooperation or coordination of effort. Without this factor of harmony, the allegiance may be nothing more than ordinary cooperation, or friendly coordination, of effort. The mastermind gives one full access to the spiritual powers of the other members of the allegiance. I want you to underscore that part in your notes.
The mastermind gives one full access of the other members of his allegiance. I’m not talking about just the mental powers or the financial powers but the spiritual powers. I’m referring to that feeling you have when you begin to establish permanency in your mastermind relationship, that this is going to be one of the most outstanding and pleasant experiences of your entire life. When you’re engaged in the mastermind activity, I want to tell you that you have so much faith, you know that you can do anything that you start out to do. You have no doubts, you have no fears, and you have no limitations. It’s a marvelous frame of mind to be in.
It is a matter of established record that all individual successes based upon any kind of achievement above mediocre are attained through the mastermind principle and not by individual effort alone. Just imagine how little you could accomplish if you didn’t have the cooperation of other people. Suppose that you’re a dentist, or a lawyer, or a doctor, or anybody in a profession. Suppose that you didn’t understand how to convert each one of your clients or patients into a salesman for yourself. Imagine how long it would take to build up a clientele or a following. Outstanding professional men understand how to make a salesman out of every person they serve. They do it by going the extra mile, going out of their way to be of unusual service—they make salesmen out of all of their clients. Most successes are the result of personal power of sufficient proportions to enable one to rise above mediocre. This is not possible without the application of the mastermind principle.
During the first term of Franklin D. Roosevelt, I had the privilege of visiting the White House and working with him as a confidential advisor. It was I who laid out the skeleton of the propaganda plan that took the words “business depression” out of the headlines of the papers and instead substituted “business recovery.” Some of you may remember what happened on that Black Sunday, when we had a meeting at the White House, and the banks closed the following Monday morning. Do you remember what a stampede there was in this country? People were lined up in front of the banks all over the country to draw out their deposits. They were scared to death. They had lost confidence in their country, in their banks, in themselves, and in everybody else. I suppose they still had some confidence in God, but they didn’t show much sign of it. It was a scary time, I tell you.
We sat down there and worked out a skeleton of a plan (a procedure) that created one of the most outstanding applications of the mastermind that this nation has ever seen. I doubt if any nation on earth has ever had the equal of it. It was only a matter of weeks until we had taken all that fear out of people. It was only a matter of days until salesmen on the road who had run out of funds, who couldn’t get money, were laughing about it, and not in any way scared about it. My own funds were closed. I must tell you something funny. I got very smart when I found out what was coming, and I ran down to the bank and got a thousand-dollar bill. I might just as well have had only ten cents. It wasn’t even worth a nickel, not a nickel. I wasn’t scared because everybody else was in the same boat that I was in.
But something had to be done about it. Franklin D. Roosevelt was a great leader. He had great imagination. He had great courage. Here’s what we did. First, we got both houses of Congress working in harmony with the president. It was the first time in the history of this nation that both houses of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, got behind the president and forgot about what their political faiths happened to be. In other words, there were no Democrats and there were no Republicans. There were just Americans backing the president, allowing everything he needed in order to stop that stampede of fear. I have never seen anything equal to it in my life. I never hope to see it again. I would wish I could see that spirit of cooperation, but I don’t hope to experience another depression for it. There was a great emergency and something had to be done about it.
Second, everything that we sent out to the American newspapers was published, and they gave it marvelous space. The radio station operators gave us marvelous help despite their political beliefs. All denominations of churches showed one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen in this country: Catholics and Protestants, Jews and Gentiles, and all of the rest pulling together as Americans. It was a wonderful sight. A wonderful sight! What a wonderful thing it was, everyone getting behind the president, everyone making some sort of a contribution toward reestablishing faith in the people of this country.
During these hectic days, I want to tell you that whether there was any doubt in the minds of the majority of the people, I don’t know. I didn’t come into contact with anybody who didn’t think that Mr. Roosevelt was the only man, the finest man, that could possibly have handled that chaotic condition. Don’t get me wrong. Politically, I’m just talking about a great man who did a great job at a time when it needed to be done, and he did it because he had a mastermind alliance that was unbeatable.
Let’s take up the different kinds of mastermind alliances that you may have. First of all, there are alliances for purely social or personal reasons, consisting of one’s relatives, friends, and religious advisors, where no material gain is solved. The most important of this type is the mastermind alliance that exists between a man and his wife. I can’t overemphasize the importance to you who are married of immediately working on and rededicating that marriage to a mastermind alliance based upon this lesson tonight. It’ll bring joys into your life that you never dreamed of. It’ll bring success into your life that you’ve never dreamed of. It’ll bring health into your life that you’ve never dreamed of. It’s a perfectly marvelous thing when a real mastermind alliance exists between a man and his wife. I don’t know of anything that equals it.
And then there are alliances for business or professional advancement, consisting of individuals who have a personal motive of a material or a financial nature connected with an object of their alliances. I imagine that the majority of you will be forming your first mastermind alliances for purely economic or financial advancement purposes and that’s perfectly legitimate. That’s one of the reasons you’re learning this philosophy. If you want to improve your economic and financial condition, you should start immediately to form a mastermind alliance for that purpose. If you can begin with one person, that’s all right, just start out with one. Then, look around until the two of you select another. When you go to select the third party, be sure the first one and the second one that you’ve already formed your mastermind alliance with are in accord with the selection. This is very important. When you go to select the fourth, the three of you then will pass on the fourth and you’ll go over the matter very carefully before you make him or her a member of the alliance. When you go to select the fifth, the four of you will select the fifth. In a mastermind alliance, there’s no such thing as one person dominating except in the respect that generally speaking one person is the leader. He’s the coordinator and the leader but in no way undertakes to dominate his associates. The very moment you start to dominate anybody, you will find resistance and rebellion, and even though it may not be an open rebellion, it’s rebellion nevertheless. The mastermind alliance must be one continuous spirit of perfect harmony, where you move and act as if you were only one mind.
The American system of free enterprise is another example of efficiency through the mastermind principle. This system is the envy of the world because it has raised the standard of living of the American people to an all-time high level. Despite the fact that there’s perfect harmony, there is motive in the American system of free enterprise to inspire every individual to do his best. There is a motive there.
More and more industry and business is coming to understand that they can go a step further, and instead of just having cooperation or coordination of effort between management and the workers, they can have the mastermind principle by sharing the management problems, sharing the profits—sharing everything. Where I have been successful in influencing any business to adopt that policy, the business has made more money than it’s ever made before. The employees have received more wages and everybody’s happy.
INSTRUCTIONS ON FORMING AND MAINTENANCE OF A MASTERMIND ALLIANCE
1. Adopt a definite purpose. Adopt a definite purpose as an objective to be obtained by the alliance.
2. Choose members. Find individual members whose education, experience, and influence make them the greatest value in achieving the purpose. Students often ask me what is the most favorable number for a mastermind alliance, and how do you go about selecting the right sort of people for your mastermind alliance? The nearest answer that I can give you is that the procedure is exactly the same as if you were starting a business and you were choosing employees. What kind of an employee would you choose?
Dependability is at the top of the list. If a person is not dependable, I don’t want any part of him in a business transaction, no matter how brilliant he may be and no matter how well educated he may be. In fact, the more educated he is, the more dangerous he may be if he’s not dependable. If he’s not loyal, I would say the same thing. If an individual is not loyal to those to whom he owes loyalty, then to me he has no character whatsoever and I want no part of him. Ability to do the job is the third step. I’m not interested in a man’s ability until I find out whether he’s dependable and whether he’s loyal. Number four is a positive mental attitude. After all, what good is a negative wet blanket around you? I think if you’d pay him to stay away, you’d be ahead of the game. Number five, what would that be? Going the extra mile, that’s right. And number six, what would you say that is? Applied faith.
When you find people that come up to all of those six traits, you’ve really found somebody. You’re in the presence of royalty. If you’re only running a peanut stand or two, you may need only one person, but if you’re running a chain of peanut stands, you might need a hundred people.
The six qualifications for your mastermind group are: dependability, loyalty, ability, positive mental attitude, willingness to go the extra mile, and applied faith. Those are the qualifications of your mastermind allies. Don’t settle for anything less. If you find a man that has five of those qualities and doesn’t have all six of them, beware of him before you start. Because they are all essentials of the mastermind relationship, check very carefully to see if they’re there. You can’t have perfect harmony unless you’re working with somebody who checks 100 percent on all six fronts. You might have a working arrangement, like so many people do, but it wouldn’t embrace all of the potential values of the mastermind.
3. Determine motive and compensation.
What’s appropriate for each member to receive in return for his cooperation in this alliance? Remember, nobody ever does anything for nothing. They never do. You say when you give love to somebody you don’t get anything out of that. But you get plenty out of that. Love is a great privilege and even when the love is not returned, you still had the benefits of that state of mind known as love. You enjoyed the development and growth as a result of it. There’s no such thing as something for nothing. Nobody works without some sort of compensation.
There are very many different forms of compensation. Don’t expect that your mastermind allies are going to jump in and help you make a fortune or help you do anything unless they are equally participating in the benefit that comes out of that mastermind alliance. That’s the criteria. Each individual must approximately benefit equally with yourself, whether it’s a monetary benefit, a happiness benefit, a peace of mind benefit, a social benefit, or whatever it happens to be. Never ask anybody to do anything (if you want to be sure of his doing it) unless you give him an adequate motive for doing it.
If I went down to the bank and wanted to borrow ten thousand dollars, what would be an adequate motive for the bank lending me that money? Two of their motives come under the heading of desirable financial gain. The bank would be delighted to loan me as much as I could take away if I give them three things. They’ll want security. They’ll want collateral. And they’ll want to profit on that loan. That’s what they’re in business for.
There are other transactions not based upon the monetary motive. For instance, when a man asks the girl of his choice to marry him, what’s the motive? Sometimes, theatrically, love, yes. I bet out of all the people sitting here, everyone would have a different idea or definition as to what the motive is when a man asks the girl of his choice to marry him. And if she accepts, why does she accept him?
When my father brought my stepmother home, he was just a farmer. He never had a white shirt or a tie. He wouldn’t. He was afraid of white shirts and ties, and wore blue cotton shirts. My stepmother was a college woman. She was well educated. They were as different as the North Pole and the South Pole, and I wondered all of my life how he was able to sell himself to her. Of course, she cleaned him up and put a white shirt on him and made him look like somebody, but nevertheless it took her quite a little while to do it. She eventually got him into the money and he became an outstanding man. I remember what he used to look like and how he used to talk. He abused the Queen’s English. He said, “I seen him coming,” “I done my duty,” and that sort of thing. So I asked her, “How in the world did my father ever sell himself to you? What was the motive?” She said, “I’ll tell you. First of all, I recognized he had good blood in his veins. Secondly, he had possibilities, and I believed that I could bring them out.” She did bring them out.
Mrs. Henry Ford and Mrs. Thomas A. Edison are two of the outstanding examples that I use time and time again to show what a woman can do to make her husband successful. Had it not been for Mrs. Ford’s understanding of the mastermind principle (although she didn’t call it by that name), Mr. Ford would never have been known, the Ford automobile would never have been made, and I doubt if the automobile industry would have been ushered in as it has been. It was Mrs. Ford more than Mr. Ford that kept him going, kept him alert, and kept him filled with confidence in himself when the going was hard. People were criticizing him in connection with his contraption that they said was only designed to scare horses. Remember that I, too, was criticized for fooling away my time with the richest man in the world, working for nothing. Mrs. Ford sustained him through those trying hours when the going was hard. All of you will experience that period in your life. The going is hard at some time with everybody.
Frequently, a woman will marry a man because she sees that he has possibilities, that she can do something with him, and make something out of him. Sometimes it’s monetary consideration, sometimes it’s love, sometimes it’s one thing, and sometimes another. Nevertheless, anytime anyone engages in any transaction, there is a motive in back of it, you may be sure of that. Whatever you want anybody to do, pick out the right kind of motive, plant it in his or her mind under the proper circumstances, and you’ll become a master salesman.
Establish a definite plan through which each member of the alliance will make his contribution in working toward achieving the object of the alliance. Arrange a definite time and place for the mutual discussion of the plan. Indefiniteness will bring defeat. Keep a regular means of contact between all members of your alliance. Have you ever heard of a great friendship, or have you ever had a great friendship with somebody, that suddenly grew cold and finally died? Certainly, most of us have had that experience, and do you know the reason for it? Neglect. By far, neglect. If you have very close and very dear friends, the only way you can keep them is to keep in contact constantly, even if it’s only by an occasional postcard.
I have one student who was a member of my class in 1928 in New York City. She never has missed a single one of my birthdays to send me a card. One time she was off on her vacation and she forgot it until the midafternoon of my birthday and she sent me a telegram congratulating me on my birthday. In other words, she has been the most constant student that I have ever had out of the many thousands all over the country. As a result of that close attention that she’s given me, there have been times when I have been able to help her in a business way, too. The last time I got her a promotion that amounted to about four thousand dollars a year, which is quite a little bit of payoff for the business of keeping in contact. To keep in contact with your mastermind allies, you have to have regular meeting places, and you have to keep them active. If you don’t, they grow cold and grow indifferent, and finally they are of no value to you.