5 Benefits Of Building Strategic Relationships

The challenges you are bound to face as a dreamer may sometimes be beyond your capability to solve them. In such situations, forming strategic alliances with people of similar determination will prove extremely valuable in your pursuit. This is why successful companies are comprised of people and not just one person. Begin to apply this principle early with a small circle and you will be well on your way to realizing your dreams.

Now before moving on any further, I just want to make clear that I’m not specifically talking about forming business alliances or partnerships even though this principle easily applies to them. The focus is to associate with people just as determined (or even more) as you are, in their pursuits. By sharing experiences and desires, you can gain a lot of wisdom and support that you would never get access to alone.

You must never forget that your net worth is directly proportional to your network.

And with that, here are 5 benefits of building strategic relationships:

1. You Get A Second Opinion

As dreamers and people with ambition, you will most definitely get ideas flowing in your mind regularly. Some ideas will be grand and practical. Others will be pointless and unpractical. This is normal. But it is here where the benefit of a strategic alliance can be realized.

Your circle can provide advice based on their experience or just a second opinion to help you make a better (and more informed) decision.

So many business ideas fail because the people behind them did not get a second opinion or did not get a well-informed second opinion. Don’t pass ideas to people who will just blindly support you or blindly dismiss you. Seek the counsel of like-minded people that are comfortable expressing themselves around you.

2. You Get Opportunities You Would Have Never Realized

Try to tackle life as a learner. Because you most definitely do not have all the answers. By presenting a challenge, idea or suggestion to a council of like-minded determined people, you will get perspectives that you would have otherwise never have realized on your own.

My business partner and I established a software company this year. Initially, I had my ideas on where we could seize opportunities in our market. However, upon presenting my idea to him, he made me realize better and more practical applications of our kind of business in that same market.

You will not always gain such insight on your own. I’m not also saying you need a business partner to arrive at such breakthroughs either. I’m only saying that you need to surround yourself with people that bring positive and constructive influence to your life if you plan to succeed. Because more eyes spot more opportunities.

3. You Will Receive A Constant Supply Of Motivation

You and I both know that we can’t share ideas with everyone. There are people who will think less of you for coming up with suggestions that TO THEM seem insignificant.

Do not entertain the company of such people. You need not surround yourself with people who do not value initiative. Be around people of action and you will naturally begin to act as well.

This is an example of positive motivation. Hang around an inactive crowd of people for an entire year and you too will eventually be motivated to become inactive.

People who uplift you, guide you and contribute to whatever small or grand idea you have, are people you should cherish and spend more time with. Because these people themselves are going through the same experience in their pursuits. They understand what you are going through and will be more than willing to motivate you to stay on track in your journey.

4. You Gain The Ability To Delegate Responsibilities

This is mostly common with strategic business alliances. However, even if you do not have such relationships in place, it is still very possible to ask for action from the people around you.

This is the division of labor. You may have a great idea in mind. But because you are not a developer, salesman, marketer, planner, or instrument player… you will probably need the council or even the action of a colleague who is more skilled in that area. When you are surrounded by like-minded people willing to support you, you can more easily ask them for anything in exchange for something they may need from you.

This is powerful and this is one of the more important reasons why you need strategic relationships in place. You will not be able to do everything. And even if you will, you will not be able to delegate 100% of your time to everything. Because you cannot grow this way. You will definitely burn out.

But don’t always think that you need big action from these alliances. You see, delegation can be as simple as asking someone to make a phone call on your behalf. To arrange a meeting for you. To do a little research for you. People that are willing to do these small but significant tasks for you in exchange for tasks you could do for them later in time.

5. You Develop A Lot More Individually

The more time and energy you invest in such relationships, the more you grow. You will gain knowledge of facts once unknown to you. You will save yourself years of trial and error because of a colleague’s experience. You will gain insight and perspective that will definitely prove useful in your own pursuit.

It is impossible NOT to grow when you form the right kind of alliances.

You are the average of the 5 people you intentionally spend your time with. In the company of the success-focused, you become success-focused. In the constant company of time-wasters, you inevitably become a time-waster.

To Conclude

There are numerous other benefits of forming strategic relationships with people of action. Let these few give you a little insight into the possibilities you could realize if you surrounded yourself with people just as determined as you are.

Such allianced are referred to as Masterminds. A collection of minds is more powerful than any individual mind. This is a tactic that has been practiced before in the past that has led to the success stories of many of the people we have come to admire and respect today.

It may seem hard at first to form such alliances by gathering the people you think you will need. But you must be willing to become the change you want. Meaning, drive it with all the enthusiasm you can gather. Provide the assistance and guidance someone else needs.

Work on it regularly. Do not stop at it until it finally gains momentum. The more effort you put in keeping a newly formed Mastermind operational, the higher the chances of it actually taking off and stabilizing.

And once you have a Mastermind in place, success will only be a matter of time.

#makeProgressNotExcuses