How a “Genius Network” Can Transform Your Business Raising the Barr Weekly Memo: Issue 144

This week’s reflection point: Achieving top success in any business requires a thirst for knowledge and continuous learning. Most successful entrepreneurs have a selection of favorite books that inspire their businesses. Others religiously follow blogs or newsletters that dispense great business advice. But is reading enough to propel you to true thought leadership in your field?

The simple answer is no. While absorbing educational content is key to growing your business, it’s no substitution for surrounding yourself with intelligent, innovative, successful people. I call this your “genius network”—and it has the potential to catapult your business to new heights.

Let me explain. If you were trying to become a professional skier, you might buy a bunch of books on the technique of skiing. You might even follow the blogs of successful skiers, watch skiing competitions on TV, and read up about today’s best ski equipment.

The next time you hit the slopes, you would certainly be a more informed skier—and maybe you would improve dramatically over time. But becoming a professional skier would elude you forever until you took the next step: surrounding yourself by expert skiers who are better than you, more informed than you, and willing to challenge you on the slopes.

The same is true for the business world. Investing your time, energy, and resources into forging relationships with the best business leaders can optimize your future. These genius networks stimulate your mind, challenge you to grow, and inspire you to improve your business in innovative ways.

Here are four steps you can take right away to start cultivating your genius network:

1. Start a group of about four people who are more successful than you are. Meet regularly and discuss ways to challenge the status quo in your businesses.
2. Surround yourself with colleagues, friends, and even clients who challenge you to constantly improve your business.
3. Take time every day to reflect on how the people in your genius network can inspire you to develop your next big idea to positively impact your client base.
4. In addition to reading other people’s content, write your own. Master your own area of expertise, write about it, share it and teach it to others.

Put simply, there is no substitution for a face-to-face meeting with an expert. Surrounding yourself with like-minded, successful individuals will help you continue to raise the bar.

This week’s tip: Surround yourself with a “genius network” of incredibly successful people to propel your business to the next level.