You don’t have to do it alone and you shouldn’t. The stronger your team, the more unstoppable you are.

“You can make it, but it’s easier if you don’t have to do it alone.” Betty Ford

“Will you help me? Those are the only words you need to say, and someone will help you.” Tom Harken

“You can’t do it all yourself, Don’t be afraid to rely on others to help you accomplish your goals.” Oprah Winfrey

“It’s  easier to be ignorant and say I don’t know about the problem. But once you know, once you’ve seen it in their eyes, then you have a responsibility to do something. There s strength in numbers, and if we all work together as a team, we can be unstoppable.” Craig K.

“The young do not know enough to be prudent/careful, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation.” Pearl S. Buck

“If you don’t know something, don’t be afraid to ask for help.” Gertrude Boyle

“The most important thing about establishing goals is to make sure they are important to other people in addition to you” Billy Payne

Your Personal Action Plan: Building Your Team

Behind every great achiever is another achiever. No one attains greatness by themselves. Once you’ve committed yourself to becoming unstoppable, you can begin to draw on the vast number of people and resources that can help you.

Step 1: Identify Role Models for Strength and Inspiration

The unstoppable people were inspired by all sorts of individuals: great leaders from the past, people who achieved excellence in a particular field. Inspirational role models demonstrate what’s possible and provide an invaluable source of motivation, strength, and hope.

Arnold Schwarzenegger found hi role model, Peg Park, in a bodybuilding magazine. Peg was the powerful person in bodybuilding at that time, and Arnold dreamed of having huge muscles like Peg’s. Arnold learned everything he could about Peg – his training routine, diet, and lifestyle. The more he learned about Peg and followed his example, the more Arnold realized it was possible for him to become like Peg.

Action: Create your own Gallery of Unstoppable Role Models.  To create your gallery, first identify three or four individual who truly inspire you. Find pictures of these people and hang the pictures in a place where you spend quiet time for reflection. When challenging situation or feeling discouraged, look at the pictures of your role models. Draw strength from their spirit. Remind yourself that they have been where you are and that they prevailed. If they prevailed, so can you!

“The capacity for hope is the most significant fact of life. It gives human beings a sense of destination and the energy to get started.” Norman Cousins

Step 2: Inventory Your Existing Contacts

You’re Only a Phone Call Away from ANYONE.

There’s a saying that anyone is only a six people from the president. You know someone who knows someone who knows someone… right up to the Palace. And if you’re only six people away from the president, you’re only six people away from anyone you want to meet, whether it’s corporate CEO, a celebrity whose help you’d like to enlist to support a cause.

Draw on Your Existing Relationships

People like doing business with people they like, and they also like helping people they like. “If you don’t have a big name, borrow one.”

Action: Make a list of all your contacts. Think of everyone you know and have done business with right up to the CEO of a company that has been a past client. Design a strategy that best uses your contacts. Maybe you’d like someone to make a phone call on your behalf, refer you to a contact in a particular industry, or write a letter of endorsement.

Step 3: Develop Your Own “Inner Circle”

The relationships were developed over years of invested time and energy. Networking is a skill that is never taught in school but is absolutely crucial if your dream requires the support of others. What ever your goal is, the principles are the same. Everyone can benefit from their own inner circle.

“From the beginning of time, those who became leaders were not necessarily the strongest or fiercest…but those with the most friends or connections.”

Find Candidates for Your “Inner Circle”

      Nonprofit organizations: The absolute best place to find caring, action-oriented people is at nonprofit organizations. The board of directors of most nonprofit, comprise corporate executives, entrepreneurs, and community leaders. No matter how busy you may be, if you’re not involved in a nonprofit, you are missing a great opportunity to invest in people. Identify a nonprofit that compliments your purpose and passion. Volunteer for a committee. By giving of your time and resources, you’ll gain the opportunity to make a difference in your community and meet great people you might not have ordinarily come in contact with.

      Professional associations and conventions: People gather from all over the country to share ideas, methods, and techniques at industry conventions. These meeting offer an excellent forum to make a new connections and personally meet top achievers in almost any field. Do your research. After identifying the industry or field you want to pursue, go to the library or go on-line with your computer and look up the associations listed under that category. Call the association and request an information kit along with a list of upcoming conventions, seminars, and available publications and other materials. Identify the people you most want to meet, attend the meetings, and introduce yourself. Don’t be shy!

      Your existing place of employment: If you are currently working for a corporation, don’t miss a valuable opportunity to maximize your existing resources. Every employee has a title and a job description. Unfortunately, many employees refuse to do anything outside of their job description. If you want to grow and become unstoppable, you must step “out of the box” and move beyond the confines of your job description. Think of opportunities that you could develop more fully. How could you maximize the job you currently have? What special projects could you volunteer to lead? Whom do you admire in your company and want to learn from? Step outside the “box.” No one will create these opportunities for you. You have to do it.

      Find a coach: Personal coaches are becoming a unique profession of the 1990s. Coaches work with all types of individuals to help define and achieve goals: career, personal, or most often both. Find an individual who has expertise in an area where you require support. Think about the skills and abilities you have that could be useful to that person and then trade time coaching each other.

Action: Identify an area where you would like to learn more. Talk to your inner circle, and ask them if they know anyone in that field. Usually, each name you get will result in another referral until you meet the person you need to meet. If all of your leads eventually become dead-ends, do some research. Even Bill Gates can be reached by email. Take advantage of technology, and most important, take action! You have nothing to lose, and each step will bring you closer to your goal.

“A wise man learns by the experience of others. An ordinary man learns by his own experience. A fool learns by nobody’s experience.” Vern McLellan

Step 4: Develop a Mastermind Group – Your Personal Advisory Board

Napoleon Hill defines a mastermind group as the “coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose.” If “two heads are better than one,” when you have an entire team, you have an exponential magic. “Economic advantages may be created by any person who surrounds themselves with the advice, counsel, and personal cooperation of a group who are willing to lend him or her wholehearted aid in a spirit of harmony. Many people have similar interests or skills that can help you and who can be helped by your expertise. Members of a mastermind group bring together their varied backgrounds, information, and contacts for one specific reason: to help each group member achieve his or her goals.

A mastermind group provides a great opportunity to allow your inner circle to benefit others. Each of you has a contacts and knowledge that can be of value to a variety of people whether he or she works for a nonprofit organization or is an executive with a Fortune 500 company.

Finally, don’t underestimate who and what you know. Always look for ways you can offer help first. Build a reputation for being a “giver.” Brainstorm how your expertise or contacts can help others. Be the first to give. You’ll derive personal satisfaction in helping others. If you focus on giving and being of service to others, people will want to give back to you!

Action: Identify three areas where you require support. Identify one person this week that could provide support in one of those areas and invite that person to join your mastermind group. Brainstorm with that person about how you could help each other achieve your respective goals. Discuss possible future members for the mastermind group, existing contacts, and resources you might each have that would help one another.

When it comes to teamwork, the math you learned in school doesn’t apply. One plus one equals far more than two. And one plus any other number can equal unstoppable results.