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Calvin Coolidge former American president has said some brilliant things in his time.
“I not only use all the brain I have, I use all the brains I can borrow”
In my view, it hits the spot in describing the best aspects of the successful communities, groups and networks. Ecademy is brilliant for this. Quotes too allows us to access the brain power of those who are long gone and with the power of the internet we have access to a seemingly endless library of material that can help us find inspiration in many ways. (Thanks to Sunil Bali who highlighted this quote in his newsletter today).
A couple more I like ….
“If you see ten troubles coming down the road, you can be sure that nine will run into the ditch before they reach you.”
“If I had permitted my failures, or what seemed to me at the time a lack of success, to discourage me I cannot see any way in which I would ever have made progress.”
Last night in Bristol, the Boardrooms (@EcademyBR) demonstrated they are excellent at utilising collective brain power effectively. Seven enterprising and dynamic entrepreneurs happily got stuck in to brainstorming and problem solving with a fair amount of humour and good will.
Anyone who knows the individuals there can probably imagine the atmosphere – it was exciting, inspiring and highly charged with a real desire to get the best out of everyone. Stephen Bailey, Chris Bose, William Buist, Alasdair McWilliam, Rory McGwire and John McCombie – quite a cocktail of entrepreneurial brain power. By the end of a long evening I came away exhausted but absolutely exhilarated and inspired. (Can you imagine keeping such a dynamic bunch focused and under control? It is enough to keep anyone on their toes!)
Despite having three Boardroom virgins in the room – the discussions were as forthright and straight as ever (Bristol is not for wimps or fluffy platitudes). A diverse range of issues were tackled head on so I anticipate that our next gathering on 12th December should be particularly interesting.
The point is that there is absolutely nothing to beat the collective intelligence and experience which brings such power to those willing to participate. Modern day crowd-sourcing can empower the meekest of individuals to achieve great things if they just know where to ask the right questions. I find this concept incredibly exciting as anything can become possible.
Human beings are not designed to go-it-alone. Interaction with our peers is vital and essential to our success. I am sure that this collective resource is available to many people in many different forms and I am now curious as to how others take advantage of this aspect of life.
So whose brains are you borrowing and how do you tap into the expertise and experience available?