Surround Yourself with Sharp Minds!

If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re probably in the wrong room!

When I read this quote by ?yvind Hammer, I was reminded of how important it is to surround yourself with people who are more intelligent than you, who have experiences you don’t have, who possess knowledge you lack, and who have ideas and thoughts different from yours.

Being around people who are different from you provides an opportunity to learn new things, accept, and even enjoy the unfamiliar. This can broaden your horizons and grow you professionally and personally.

Although I am pretty ordinary and conformist, I have a certain appreciation for the unusual and unfamiliar. Sometimes, I think I should dare to do as these “odd ones” do, but other times, I breathe a sigh of relief, happy to live my own little safe and conformist life.

A Conversation That Changed Me

Once, I was lucky enough to have a one-hour conversation with John Grinder, one of the creators of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). He was in Norway when the book From Frog to Prince was released. The conversation taught me a lot and likely changed much of my mindset.

One of the most important things I took away was how crucial it is to constantly learn new things to develop oneself as a person, especially how important it is to learn from the most skilled masters in the field you wish to grow in.

He explained how mimicking the best, doing precisely as they do, enables you to achieve equally good results. This is how children learn during their early years—when they learn more than they do for the rest of their lives.

That’s how he learned hypnosis, he said—by observing the best American hypnotherapists of the time and then imitating them.

“You don’t always need to have the same deep knowledge as the masters, but by doing exactly as they do, you can achieve equally good results,” he said.

Who Are Your Mentors?

Have you thought about who your role models are? Who are the people that excel at what you want to learn or improve? What are they doing that you’re not? What can you learn from them, and how can you emulate them in your own way?

Please don’t misunderstand and think you’re supposed to become a copy of others, which is far from it. You should be yourself as you are, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t grow, become more skilled, and improve at being uniquely you.

Could you reach out to some of your mentors? Ask to join them in their work to observe and learn. Most people feel flattered to be asked and often say yes. That’s why they’re mentors—they are masters at teaching others.

Ask for help to become wise! It’s the smartest thing you can do!

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