Masterminds and Partnerships: It's Not JUST About How Smart and Hardworking You Are (10)
Masterminds and Partnerships: It's Not JUST About How Smart and Hardworking You Are
Masterminds and Partnerships: It's Not JUST About How Smart and Hardworking You Are
A little personal story ...
By the time I graduated from university, I was fortunate enough to have more than 10 job offers from some of the best companies in the world. Needless to say, I thought I was pretty awesome. Furthermore, I had always been a good and hardworking student, near the top of my class, so I felt that the real world would be a piece of cake for me as well.
Boy, was I wrong.
What I quickly learned was that in the real world ... where you have to interact with other people ... being smart and hardworking are just the entrance tickets that allow you to play the game.
In my first job, I saw plenty of people who had ridiculously IQs and worked crazy hours. But I observed that if this was all they had, many of them inevitably ended up either
1) running into an invisible ceiling in heir professional lives, or
2) completely messing up their personal lives, or
3) both
I think this lesson is just as applicable to IM as well.
In order to turn affiliate marketing into a real, large scale business, it's not enough to just to be smart and hardworking lone wolf. Yes this will get to to a certain level (indeed to a level that most people in the rest of the world would find impressive), but in order to scale beyond that level, you will need learn how to work effectively and excel with people ... as a leader, as a manager, as a partner, as a negotiator, as a follower, as a team member.
Harvard professor Daniel Goleman call this characteristic Emotional Intelligence (EQ), and he considers EQ even more important than IQ.
Just what is emotional intelligence?
It's simply the ability to recognize your and other people's feelings, objectively observe them and respond accordingly. It’s a proactive mental attitude instead of a reactive or suppressed approach.
It may seem easy, but understanding other people's perspectives, interests and emotions and processing your emotions in a healthy and rational way that walks the skillful balance of not denying they exist or burying yourself in remorse and negative self-talk does not come naturally for most people. It need to be developed.
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Recently, there has been a lot of talk on the forum about masterminds and working with others.
I think this is a great evolution.
But in order for these partnerships and masterminds to realise their full potential, you will need more than the IQ and the hard work of the participants.
All the partners and participants will need to be able to work well together, communicate well together, and start thinking of how to collectively succeed.
This is not an easy task.
But developing your EQ is a great place way to start off on this exciting journey. And you'll find the EQ skills you develop will be just as valuable in your personal life as it is in your professional life.
Great thread!
In this industry I believe you need be heck of a lot sharper than your average joe in terms EQ. We are handicapped from the get go, since most of our communications are text based. We can't see body language, and we can't hear tone, which are probably the two easiest ways to read someone.
I know I've had quite a few misunderstandings because text was read wrong.
Great post!
I agree with the Emotional Intelligence part. Everyone knows it's good but how do you get it?
Here's how to improve your emotional intelligence lead by a Google engineer (yes even engineers can improve their emotional intelligence)
Btw I meditate 1hr/day for emotional intelligence and world peace 
- you'll understand why if you watched that video
It's not what you know, its who you know
The lack of EQ is especially evident in networking sessions.
And I've hung around in enough networking sessions (not networking myself but the one serving the drinks :P) to notice the one who's main mission is to drop his namecard into as many hands as possible.
Sometimes, its better to just get to know one or two and build a great friendship from there.
Helping another person out without expecting anything in return/ being a gentleman in general, helps a great deal.
But of course, it has to be done with sincerity and in humility. And both, can and will go a long way.
cmdeal great post as usual. Any of Daniel Goleman's books you'd recommend in particular?
Originally Posted by wozz
If you want to read about emotional intelligence read daniel colemans book, if you want to get emotional intelligence watch that video and get the book search inside yourself.
If you want to read about emotional intelligence read daniel colemans book, if you want to get emotional intelligence watch that video and get the book search inside yourself.
Impressive video, thanks for sharing.
Knowing how to network and interact with people is often underrated and downplayed in success stories. Most people prefer to focus on luck or brilliance. These 2 do play a factor but how you treat other people is just as important.
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