Napoleon Hill and Mastermind Groups (2024)

What did Napoleon Hill have to say about Mastermind Groups?

Napoleon Hill wrote and taught extensively for decades. Throughout his career, he advocated the use of mastermind groups as a way of taking your personal and professional life to the next level.

He first wrote about “master mind alliances” and the “master mind principle” in 1928 and in 1930 (not in the 1937 book Think and Grow Rich, as most people assume!). That’s nearly 100 years ago, and the idea of mastermind groups still flourishes today.

Why does he call it a “master mind alliance,” compared to the more modern phrase, mastermind group?

Hill originally said that when two people got together and worked on a problem or towards a goal, a third mind was created called the “Master Mind.” To him, it was a separate force in the conversation and had an energetic/spiritual connotation.

Over the past 85 years, it’s morphed from “master mind alliance” to “mastermind group,” but the meaning and underlying principles are still the same.

Want to learn how to start a mastermind group? Click here to get my free video tutorial on how to create a mastermind group of your own.

1925/1928 – The Law of Success

Most people think the first mention of mastermind groups was written by Hill in his book, Think and Grow Rich. But nearly 10 years earlier, he wrote The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons as booklets in 1925, and had them published as a correspondence course in 1928 and later into a book of the same name.

In these lessons, he talks about “the Master Mind” and how it’s a friendly alliance among people to support each other with their plans. In fact, The Master Mind is the title of Lesson One of this book.

InThe Law of Success, Hill adds another element to the idea of a mastermind group: the group helps to organize useful knowledge, creating a virtual encyclopedia from which each member can draw information.

Supposedly, two of the people he interviewed or studied for this book were Thomas Edison and Harvey Firestone. He acknowledges in the beginning of the book, “Henry Ford whose life-work supplied much of the material out of which this course was developed.” Since it’s known that Edison and Firestone, along with Henry Ford and John Burroughs, formed a loose mastermind group type of relationship, perhaps Napoleon Hill got the idea from them?

1930 – The Magic Ladder to Success

Hill continues his thoughts on the Master Mind in The Magic Ladder of Success:

“The process of mind blending here described as a “Master Mind” may be likened to the act of one who connects many electric batteries to a single transmission wire, thereby ‘stepping up’ the power passing over that line by the amount of energy the batteries carry. Each mind, through the principle of mind chemistry, stimulates all the other minds in the group.”

1937 – Think and Grow Rich

Nine years after mentioning the Master Mind in The Law of Success, he devotes an entire chapter to it in Think and Grow Rich, and talks about the concept of a Master Mind alliance or Master Mind group. He goes on to describe it as, “A friendly alliance with one or more persons who will encourage one to follow through with both plan and purpose.”

Napoleon Hill feels so strongly about this that he says, “Maintain perfect harmony between yourself and every member of your mastermind group. If you fail to carry out this instruction to the letter, you may expect to meet with failure. The Master Mind principle cannot obtain where perfect harmony does not prevail.”

He continues, “Before forming your Master Mind alliance, decide what advantages and benefits you may offer the individual members of your group in return for their cooperation.” From the outset, he realized that a mastermind group is a sharing of help among members, and what you bring to a mastermind group is just as important as what you receive from a mastermind group.

That’s a strong message about what makes a mastermind group succeed or fail.

1945 – Master Key to Riches

InMaster Key to Riches, Napoleon Hill says, “Every mind needs friendly contact with other minds, for food of expansion and growth.”

To Hill mastermind groups are established to help create an environment that nurtures and supports growth.

Notice how he uses the word “friendly” throughout his discussion of mastermind groups? Hill believed that a harmonious groups of two or more people who come together for a specific purpose, or around a specific topic, bring forth the power of creativity and support that you can’t find when you go it alone. The key is mutual respect and good rapport, which is fostered in modern mastermind groups by the Facilitator.

He also writes, “The Master Mind principle is the medium through which one may procure the full benefit of the experience, training, education, specialized knowledge, and native ability of others, just as completely as if their minds were one’s own.” As proof, he says, “The Master Mind principle made it possible for Thomas Edison to become a great inventor despite his lack of education and his lack of knowledge of the sciences with which he had to work.” Powerful stuff!

Napoleon Hill television series

Napoleon Hill recorded a multi-part television series in the 1960s, reviewing his Master Keys to Success principles. I have found it both on YouTube and on Netflix. Here is the full TV series on Youtube (will open in a new tab). The “master mind principle” topic begins about 10 minutes into the video.

In this television show, he says one of the keys is a mastermind group:

“Now, here are some interesting facts about the mastermind which give you an idea of how important it is and how necessary that you embrace this principle and make use of it in attaining success in your chosen occupation. First of all, it is the principle through which you may borrow and use the education, the experience, the influence, and perhaps the capital of other people in carrying out your own plans in life. It is the principle through which you can accomplish in one year more than you could accomplish without it in a lifetime if you depended entirely on your own efforts for success.”

Wow, that’s powerful!

When starting or joining a group

When starting a mastermind group, or joining an existing one, look for these three hallmarks: friendly, growth-oriented, and willing to share information.

Want to learn how to start a mastermind group? Click here to get my free video tutorial on how to create a mastermind group of your own.