Cooperation. Amazing things happen when we work together.

This past week I had the opportunity to do some professional development training with a colleague. I learned a lot, but the most powerful lesson was the reminder about the power of cooperation. By having someone who knows my field, to bounce ideas off of, I was able to come up with new strategies and outlooks that I could never have created alone.

You've probably heard of a principal called "synergy". Synergy has became a major buzzword a over the last decade or so. In fact it's been used so much that it's probably lost it's meaning for many, but it's a powerful concept that anyone who wants to succeed in business, in school and in life, should understand. Synergy is defined as: 'two or more agents working together to produce a result not obtainable by any of the agents independently'. In other words, in math 2 + 2=4 but in synergy, 2+2 might equal 10.

"Pyramid" or Multi-Level Marketing businesses employ this principal very effectively. Say what you will about these types of businesses, they understand the concept of exponential growth and synergy. They understand that four people working together can accomplish more than double what two people can.

So where could you be employing synergy in your life right now? Who should you call to talk about a project? Make this the week you start to think cooperatively!

The Amazing Power of Team Work

If anyone out there doubts the power of team work, let me say that this week I learned, with a dedicated team, you can do anything.

I'll be the first to tell anyone that I think any individual with enough dedication, commitment and vision, can accomplish anything. This blog post doesn't discount that fact. I still believe it to the core of my being. What I learned this week, is that while anyone can do anything any team can do that thing even faster!

This week I asked several colleagues and friends to help me promote my book: "Live Life from the Heart: 52 Weeks to a Life of Passion and Purpose" (get it here). They each agreed to send out a promo for my book to their email lists in exchange for some free promo from me. It was great. It cost none of us money and everyone benefited. Win-Win, the only way to do business.

The coolest thing about it though was to watch the power of a team. While I was able to promote my book to about 400 people with the use of my contacts. But, by partnering with just 8 other colleagues, I was able to take that number from 400 to nearly 10,000! That's a better than 2000% increase! Not bad.

So, the next time you're working on a project, whether at work or at home, consider how you can best employ the power of a team to get it done. Note, you have to be willing to swallow some of your pride and relinquish some control in order to make it work, but the results are well worth it!