Everyone has heard the mantra of “Group Strength”. Usually it is followed by an example of how one stick can be broken but a bundle cannot. You will hear how one battery has power, but a bundle of batteries are stronger for longer periods of time. You will see evidence in team building exercises to solve problems.
No mater how lame these exercises are, they are right. If you want to get something done – you need a group. You need a crew.
Any successful project requires a strong crew. If you are unfamiliar with the term, a crew is a team. Every crew is made up of different individuals, each with a particular skill, asset or talent.
If you have ever robbed a bank, committed burglary, or any crime that involves planning, implementation, extraction or escape and then a turnover of goods - you have had a crew.
A crew gives you access to knowledge, goods, skills, services and protection. They are your team. Everyone must play their part.
In business, your crew is your team. It can be your partners, your advisors, your distributors, your mentors, your marketers, your spouse – whoever you can trust. And if you can’t trust them, whoever you can trust to act in their own best interest while serving yours.
I am a fan of Henry Ford. Forget about the speculation that he was a racist prick and just look at what he was able to do.
Henry Ford began his business career under the handicap of poverty, illiteracy, and ignorance. In ten years, he turned these challenges around and in twenty-five years he was one of the richest men in the United States.
However, he didn’t get the ball rolling and really start making some money until he hooked up with Thomas Edison. Now these two made up a good team, but Ford didn’t really lock everything down and become the multi-millionaire he was destined to be until he hooked up with Harvey Firestone (the tire guy), John Burroughs (author), and Luther Burbank (Botanist). Each guy was brilliant in their own way. Even though they may have never been in the same business, they were still a crew.
Who is to say that Firestone wasn’t smoking out with Burbank one day and Burbank turned him on to a new type of tree to make a different type of rubber? Who can say that Burrows didn’t get money making ideas to write about by hanging out with these guys? If you build the right crew – the money will happen. The trick is to hook up with people who are experts in things that you are not. If you are in construction, hang out with people who are not in the trades. If you are in retail, hang out with people who are in construction, or marketing, or writing, or foodservice. Expose yourself to their perspective. The more you expose yourself to opportunities, the more opportunities you will find.
Success and wealth rarely happens to the individual when they operate alone. It almost always involves working with others in a cooperative environment.
It sounds good and feels good to say “I Did It Myself, All By Myself”. I get it, you against the world and you get to win. Organizing a team doesn’t diminish your accomplishments. In fact, it could assure your success in ways that you wouldn’t be able to accomplish on your own. Maybe your idea can make you $60,000 a year for the rest of your life. But what if you met someone who could sprinkle just a little bit of information on your idea and kick that up to $600,000 a year? Would you be willing to swallow a little pride to fatten your wallet?
Surround yourself with smart (not too smart) people or at the very least, people who are experts in what they do. That is the ticket to wealth. Sometimes, I will even substitute smart people with loyal people. However loyalty only goes so far.
Business ventures, like criminal ventures, are only as good as its weakest players. It’s the guys who act too fast, talk too much, know too much, and the closer you are to the people involved, the more quickly things can go bad. It is always best to have a primary crew – small, tight and good. Then you can spread out – meet new people and bring that information back to the crew. It’s called “Networking”.
To get the benefit of all that good stuff, you need to first pick your primary crew. Stay tuned for Part Two – How To Pick Your Million Dollar Crew.
Great article!
Teamwork is the foundation on which all successful enterprises are built and is essential to achieve excellent and peak performance.
Everything we do must be designed to create and reinforce interpersonal and organizational trust.
r”Chemistry” is the word most often used when looking into world championship sports teams.
Good article.
There is no speculation about Henry Ford’s racism. He was an active anti-semite. I am one also, and I see no reason to be coy about it. Thanks for using him as a solid moral example.
David,
I don’t care what God anyone prays to - or if they pray at all. Like your sexuality - it’s none of my business. Do what you have to do to get by. It all falls under the category of “Shit I don’t care about”.
I hold up Ford as an example of a smart cat who was strong with his hustle. No more and no less. I do this despite his racism, not because of it.
Everyone, no matter how ignorant, has something to contribute. That is the whole point of this blog. I don’t care who you hate. I don’t care about white people who hate black people. I don’t care about black people who hate white people. You deal with your own demons. If you drop them on my doorstep then I will deal with them for you.
I have found that most racism stems from weakness. The Germans were weak and they needed someone to pin it on. The broke and starving Arabs that hate Jews, do so because they are told that Jews drink the blood of Palestinians. Come on, you have to pity these ignorant people that actually believe this. It is sad and sick.
Old Jim Crow laws were based on the fear that all black men wanted to do was rape white women. Now one of my close friends is a white man who married a black woman.
If you are a Christian Anti-Semite then you know the story about the Tower of Babel. This is what created the separate civilizations. You would also have to accept that it is our destiny that each of these tribes will inter-breed until civilization is back to the point where it was created “in Gods own Image”.
This site isn’t about religion. It is about making something from nothing. If you are on the path to come up and make a life, you have to dump that old hatred. Hatred and fear is a weakness. It is nothing more than a misunderstanding or a complete ignorance of information.
I am not a racist man, so don’t hang your trips on me. I am about my paper, not someone else’s God.
united we stand divided we fall. is what i get from this. i have a strong street team for distribution and without them i would be back to walking 10 miles a day.