light because I think when you go to
restaurant and you have a great main
menu which you had and main course which
is with the last speeches you should
leave with a the sorbet that you eat
last
so every sweet sweet taste and you’re
done don’t you blown up so make sure we
do it that way but at the same time I
think it’s powerful because it’s about a
topic that is relevant to each and all
of you and I think it’s something that
everyone in this room would name a key
pillar to happiness because what we’re
going to talk about is the power that
lies in your friendships and how you can
unlock it first I’d like to take a step
back first and just think about
relationships that you build with other
people they’re very powerful and
probably one of the main success factors
out there if you think about any any
opportunity or any situation where you
had a chance for career advancement or
an opportunity opened it was almost
always linked to a relationship you
build with someone think about a job
that you got you had to go to an
interview right you had to build a
certain bond and relationship with your
interview and if it was a positive pond
he gave you a pass and you received the
offer probably same thing if you want to
start your own company you want to you
want to launch a startup you need to
come up with an idea first right and how
do you get an idea it’s not just in the
air somewhere probably you talk to
friends who inspired you or someone’s
complaining about a certain problem so
what you realize this by interacting
with people and by building
relationships you get opportunity
exposure same thing for consultants
think about a McKinsey partner for
instance he doesn’t win projects just
because there’s a great LinkedIn profile
oh because he sends cold emails of
something he builds relationships he
builds trust with people and thereby he
gets the mandate so we should think
about relationships in terms of
opportunity universes so whenever you
meet someone you build a great
relationship you also have access to new
opportunities and today we want to focus
on one vital chapter within that
relationship building which is how you
can collaborate with friends to get
exported to more opportunities and reach
goals that otherwise you wouldn’t be
maybe we should look at evolution first
what you see here is on the left hand
side you see birds what birds do is they
have a typically vertical transmission
the term in terms of how they learn so
they learn a lot from their parents and
that’s something that reminds me of
students students are always looking for
coaches for mentors for leading for
leaders and that isn’t wrong but what
I’d like to inspire to become more is
like these cuties on right the
chimpanzees because what they do is they
have a lot of horizontal transmission
horizontal transmission means they learn
a lot from their peers from the friends
from the people that they spend most
time with and I think that’s the exact
same thing we should try to adapt more
and maybe I can tell you a little bit
about my story when I got I actually
studied as I mentioned and when when I
first got here I knew no one basically
so social circle wise I started from
zero and then you know how it works like
you mix in and mingle and you meet new
people and then you realize that
like-minded people attract each other
and you’ve all of these little subgroups
forming within a year same thing for me
met good friends and was a group of nine
friends in total and we did all the
things that that friends do so going out
traveling together partying together
being silly all day long and fast
forward to today we still do the same
things probably sillier than than ever
before but we’ve also set up a few
routines and structure that helped us
become better as it is individuals with
the help of the group so we have
strategy weekends where we just provide
each other with detailed feedback
feedback that no one else would be able
to give you so we just log into a room
and we talk about strengths weaknesses
opportunities threats everything that’s
important for you to develop everyone
has a certain industry that he
specialized on that he knows a lot about
and we make sure that we coach and
mentor each other so we have abled that
we are able to have access to someone
who knows so much about this industry
and we don’t even to study it ourselves
and when we first came here I felt a
little bit like you were fighting your
battles alone yet your friendship group
you’re coming back you could complain
about things you will went out again
when you you fought your own battles and
now it feels much more like someone got
your back covered and I figured out that
it’s in the dynamic which Napoleon Hill
addressed first the 20 century already
when he interviewed the most successful
leaders in the his name and he realized
that what these leaders have in common
is that they’re all part of a mastermind
group and I would like to give you a few
hints inspirations how you may also be
able to set up a mastermind group with
your friends you realize that there will
be four steps for you to set up the
group and the steps go as follow that
first you just need to come together and
exchange you need to talk about what
your visions are what is the foolish
dream that links all of you together and
when you do that you realize because
like-minded people attract each other
there’s something you all have in common
you may be different in terms of your
skill sets but there is something that
you all have in common and you need to
figure that out first once you’ve done
that you should try to establish
awareness trust and appreciation for
each other’s strengths which is the
second point here so that means what
does everyone being bring to the group
the helps you reach the vision and it’s
different because every individuals
different kind of skill sets but you
need to make sure you’re aware of what
these are and then bring them together
and what we need to realize here is it’s
not about absolute absolute advantages
it’s about relative advantages and what
that means this here we had an example
so let’s take say we have Chris and we
have max what they can do is the first
scenario they can both split their time
50/50
they can’t study it’s just an example
entrepreneurship and and finance and
Chris can become 20% better in
entrepreneurship every year and 15% in
finance max if you split this time he
can only become temper
send better in enterpreneurship and 12%
bananas so that means kristaps it has an
absolute an advantage in both but if
they come together now and they say hey
look you’re passionate about
entrepreneurship anyway I’d like to
fully focus on finance then they’re able
to be half rate of improvements which
they otherwise wouldn’t achieve so even
though max in the first example had an
disadvantage an absolute disadvantage
now he can become 24 percent better each
year which is a higher rate of
improvement then Chris would help if he
had to split this time so it makes sense
to come together be aware of what your
strengths are and then you may ask
what’s the advantage if I then spit it
up like that the advantage is you can
then specialize and build expertise we
know that no one ever got extremely
successful but trying to be good at
everything you can’t be good at
everything
so try to find the niche try to find
this one thing that you are best at that
you can be world-class and we look at
three things here in terms of
specialization its professional
knowledge personal knowledge and then
slightly different to that it’s
individual networks and to give you an
example of the first two you know these
two fellows it’s Bill Gates and Warren
Buffett probably Warren is the most
successful investor in the world and
that’s why he is so popular and so
famous and Bill Gates it’s probably no
one knows more about software and
technology than he does right and what
they do is they just focus on their
respective areas so they focus on the
thing that they are best at so one would
spend all day read annual reports and
trying to become good in financial
investments and the opposite is true for
Bill but what’s interesting is Warren
probably knows more about software and
technology than anyone in this room and
the opposite is true as well so Bill
knows a lot about financial investments
even though he doesn’t study it at all
and why is that possible because they
are very close friends and they always
say how much they learn from each other
imagine you could go out with row
unbuffered every week and have lunch
with him and have him tell you about the
industry what’s happening no professor
could ever tell you something again
about finals right so because they
bonded together what they’d what they’ve
done is they formed a mastermind group
so when one mind means the second one
they form a third and visible mind which
is the mastermind and they thereby
specialize in certain sectors that
educated each other then we come to the
third point the third point is
individual networks that you can build
and what that means is if you come
together with a mastermind group and you
specialize on certain verticals which
you have friends in anyway for example
in our case one guy knows a lot of
journalists anyway one guy he’s he’s
been to a very entrepreneurial he loves
all the techies all the coders and
another guy he’s reinter fashion so he
has a lot of fashion friends so everyone
builds a network in the in a different
industry and you then come together and
what you’re then able to achieve is you
have an open network as opposed to a
closed network closed Network means your
group of bankers every banker knows the
other banker you just hang out with each
other and you don’t have an open mindset
for anyone who’s outside of your group
that’s a closed network you can’t help
each other you know each other anyway an
open network is opposed to that means
that you’re a connection point between
other networks so if you with your group
of friends say okay we each have a
network in different industries you can
draw all of these industries together
and then you form an open network and
what’s interesting is you can see that a
relative performance it’s much higher
for people who have large open networks
as opposed people who just stick to
small closed networks and that is
measured by conversation evaluation
promotion so that that is a big success
vector just as an example let’s say you
have a friend and he’s working in
fashion and he wants to set up his own
blog of website and he’s not he’s never
touched a computer because he’s also on
your Instagram right so you’re able to
connect him with your group to someone
in the coding in the entrepreneurs based
he can set up a website for that person
and thereby you able to help both
because the code has a drop the person
wants to have a website now has someone
who probably does at a cheaper rate and
help both of them so you’re able to help
people much more with you have an open
network and then what you need to do
last obviously is make sure you exchange
only if you exchange you’re able to help
each other so you need to make sure
whenever you meet just give everyone
five minutes to tell about what’s going
on in the industry what’s going on about
the thing that they know most about so
you basically have exchanged to someone
who spends all his day studying one
thing and it was probably in the top 1%
amongst the people and you’ve access to
his brain without having to study it
yourself so make sure you set up
routines for exchange that you have
regular calls that you meet regularly
and one thing that plays into that is
feedback feedback is super important and
no one’s able to give you feedback the
same way your friends can because no one
knows you as well even your parents like
in with your parents you would behave
differently than when you’re amongst
your friends right so no one’s able to
give you better feedback and no one
feels like the in position to give you
feedback otherwise strangers they don’t
want to offend you they don’t they don’t
want to like be open with you when they
talk about these things only friends
will do that so you make sure when you
exchange that feedback is one of the
things that you exchange about and if
you follow these four steps that you say
firstly you create a common vision that
you all share secondly you create
awareness respect and appreciation for
everyone’s traits and strengths thirdly
you specialize although those three
things and then fourth you exchange
about it then I think you’re able to
reach goals with this group that you
otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach on
your own and what I hope everyone leaves
this room with today is the motivation
to get together with your friends to
just share your dreams to just share
what you all want to reach together and
to realize that one of the most
inspirational sources of learning may
not be that far away but it may actually
the people that you’ve spent
most time with and if you do that then I
think one famous saying is not true
anymore
which is you’re the average of your five
closest friends that’s what people like
to say but if you form a mastermind
group if you collaborate with people and
you come together then you’re able to
have a sum that is greater than the sum
of its parts
and with that I like to thank you very
much for your attention
[Music] [Applause]