Garden Spices Magazine

Fly-with-eagles

Afriend once told me, if you want to fly don’t walk with chickens.  Instead, fly with eagles. This was almost 10 years ago exactly, and those words have sounded so fresh in my mind as if I had them today.

As a leader, entrepreneur, or conscious person, have you ever wondered why you are stuck? Have you ever taken a moment and looked around and seen who you have surrounded yourself with? My Mum used to tell me choosing friends is not an easy task and that the best friends are those who challenge you, who told you the blunt truth you didn’t want to hear, and those who pushed you to greater heights. To be honest, this was difficult advice to accept. So I went ahead just making friends for the sake of it.  Hey! Everyone had to have a bunch of friends, and I didn’t want to be left out. It wasn’t long until I faced a life changing situation that was a wake-up call for me. I have become aware of whom I surrounded myself with and started being deliberate about people I wanted in my life. This was so important, especially when I started developing my life goals and when I decided to live a purposeful life.

At this moment, have you identified potential mentors and teachers who have walked the path you want to take? Why reinvent the wheel when you can gain access to people who can shorten the journey and help you avoid the inevitable potholes?  This is where you need to form a mastermind alliance, where you form an alliance of people to support you in achieving what you have set out to do. Creating a successful alliance is very dependent upon your current mindset. For example, are you open to learning from everybody you meet, regardless of age, education, social status, race or gender? Do you believe a teacher can become a student and vice versa? There are zero degrees of separation when you have the right intent. Approaching a potential mastermind team will help you take your life to another level never imagined.

So how do you select candidates for your team? If you are going to climb a mountain and you need a guide, you look for somebody with personal experience and local knowledge, rather than a person who dreams, talks, paints or sings about climbing the mountain! The same analogy can be applied to any challenge you face. In life and in business or wherever situation you encounter, a mentor with personal experience and local knowledge is much more valuable than one who is all talk and no action.

A warning though, once you build your mastermind alliance, be ready to be accountable.  Since action is needed and not mere words, commitment is required. In selecting my team to fly with or what I call , my mastermind alliance, I considered several core values that include the following:  trust, tolerance/understanding, co-operation/growth, caring/commitment and synergy/mutuality. I therefore challenge you today to go out and fly with the eagles!

– Bikundo Onyari

Bikundo isa self taught social entrepreneur, based in Nairobi, Kenya. He is a Bridge2Success mentor and coach for upward mobile young professionals who are ambitious, smart, go-getters and high achievers who are keen to create a dynamic and inspiring life. Bikundo feels purposeful working with people to realize and nurture their abilities. Apart from Kenya, he has worked in a variety of locations including Rwanda, Uganda, the Netherlands, Morocco and Mexico. You can reach him on Twitter @BikundoOnyari.