In the dumps? Disgusted? Feel like no one’s struggling with career frustrations and business uncertainties the way you are? Makes you ask yourself, “What’s my problem?” Well, that’s how I felt.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re an employee, a business owner, a budding entrepreneur, college student, or unemployed. We just don’t have all the answers.

Finding answers is about accumulating knowledge.

And it isn’t just about information. Knowledge includes insights, perspectives, conclusions, and us.

Yes, the most important knowledge we bring to our work is self-knowledge. Are you aware of what motivates, frightens, energizes, and limits you? Do you understand and deal with your strengths and weaknesses? Are you an effective problem solver?

This is heady stuff that we often overlook. But it’s the real stuff of career and business success.

The best route to that understanding is through people who want it too.

Find like-minded people who trust each other. They’re gold!

This is what mastermind groups are. You can get a group together around any issue you face:

• Career decision-making and job hunting
• Building your small business
• Creating better marketing strategies
• Personal or professional development
• Expanding your network
• Increasing your self-confidence
• Developing new products or services

(If this is new to you, read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. It’ll amaze you.)

I needed a mastermind group when I started my solo practice.

Here’s the scenario: I’d left a big corporation and the handsome, every-two-week paycheck to start my consulting business. The risk was hefty.

I worked all day, six days a week alone—no employees, no meetings, no one.

I knew three former colleagues who were also starting new businesses, two with a real sense of urgency like mine. We were all struggling with the same issues:

• no colleagues for idea sharing, support, or accountability
• difficulty staying motivated in isolation
• trouble staying focused and resisting procrastination
• dealing with uncertainty, negative thoughts, and discouragement

So we formed a mastermind group that we called Gold Minds and met monthly for three years.

Being held accountable by others makes us more accountable to ourselves.

The Gold Minds met at my dining room table from nine to noon. Our meetings included agendas, assignments, roundtables, grillings (always constructive), status reports and laugher. We:

• confronted each other about our foibles and fears
• shared leads and made referrals
• reviewed and approved our annual goals
• challenged each other on our quarterly performance results
• conducted information exchanges; discussed books read in common

We were a kind of board of directors, committed to each other’s success.

It’s not much fun going it alone. So don’t!

Career and business challenges never stop. The right mastermind group can be a huge relief. For these groups to be successful, you need to manage expectations up front.

In our case each member agreed to:

• Be trustworthy and hold our conversations in confidence
• Accept all members as equals
• Adhere to the goals and agendas set by the group
• Be kind, patient, supportive, and sensitive
• Demonstrate a positive, can-do attitude
• Learn from others and communicate openly
• Have a good sense of humor

You get back what you put in.

Mastermind groups can cultivate a generosity of spirit that attracts positive results. Like-minded people committed to helping each other are an empowering force. Through them we become more business fit, finding success our way as they find it their way.