How Building a Personal Advisory Team Can Help You Succeed In Every Area Of Your Life

Think of the All-American man or woman who has it all: A great career, wonderful family, good friends, active social life, growing bank account, time for family, inner peace and joy, and total confidence. That’s the type of life you want to build.

But how do you do that? How can anyone be successful in all areas of their life? How can anyone have everything under control?

What’s their secret?

Their secret is they surround themselves with trusted personal advisors, experts who they rely on to advise them on critical decisions and to whom they can delegate tasks that are outside of their area of expertise or that are not a good use of their time to do themselves.

They don’t try to do everything themselves. And they utilize their advisors to excel in every area of life and to make sure that no area of their life is ever neglected.

Most people, on the other hand, do try to do everything themselves. They try to be a jack of all trades but wind up being a master of none. And they often make serious and costly mistakes. Worse yet, they often neglect their family, their health, or other key aspects of their lives trying to get everything done.

One of the most important life lessons is that you can’t do everything yourself. You can’t be an expert in everything. You can’t know everything. You can’t be good at everything. You just can’t do it all.

Sounds obvious right?

Unfortunately, this is one of the hardest life lessons for many to learn. Some never do learn it and, as a result, they never achieve their full potential.

Think about it. If you get appendicitis, you don’t go into the kitchen and take out your appendix yourself. Neither do you fill a cavity yourself. For these things, we all seek expert advice and service from trained professionals.

Unfortunately, for many other things where we should seek expert advice, we don’t. Things like financial planning and investing, fitness training, nutrition, etc. If these things are your passion, then fine, invest the 5,000 to 10,000 hours to become an expert and do them yourself. However, if your passion lies elsewhere, find a highly competent professional to do them for you.

In Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich, a whole chapter is devoted to building a mastermind group. That is, surrounding yourself with smart people who you can synergize with. By putting your minds together and focusing on a single objective, you can go much farther and much faster than you could all by yourself.

While Napoleon Hill’s mastermind group concept was primarily directed at building businesses, this is also a brilliant concept for life itself. After all, life is more than just your work, so why limit your success to your work alone? Why not design your life so that you will excel in all areas of life: career, family, relationships, finances, hobbies, etc.?

To do this, build a Personal Advisory Team of experts you can trust and count on.

What Is A Personal Advisory Team?

Rather than a mastermind group, a Personal Advisory Team is a group of wise advisors or counselors who give you guidance, either based on their superior experience or knowledge in your area of expertise or on those things that you are not expert in.

This approach was first recommended nearly three thousand years ago by King Solomon, perhaps the wisest man who ever lived. Here’s what King Solomon said…

These are wise words. Surround yourself with wise counselors and you can’t help but be successful. And you will avoid many costly mistakes in life that could bring hardship or misery.

That’s what the wealthy do. They focus on their core competencies and let their advisors handle the rest. They also get counsel when making important decisions and when they encounter serious problems so that they don’t do anything rash or foolish.

And that’s what all of us should do.

Focus on mastering those things that will create wealth and bring you success and leave the rest to your hand-picked, trusted advisors.

And always get counsel when making a big decision, contemplating a major change or encountering a significant problem. Don’t try to wing-it. Get a second and maybe even a third opinion from trusted advisors before moving forward.

Building Your Personal Advisory Team:

Your Personal Advisory Team will consist of top-notch people who can guide and advise you in all the key areas of your life. For most, these would include:

● Health: Doctors, dentists, fitness coaches, and nutritionists (You’ve got to stay in good health and detect diseases early. And being physically fit is essential to getting the most out of life)

● Wealth: Financial planners, brokers, accountants, lawyers and tax advisors (You’ve got to manage and save your money and make it grow. Virtual coaches are suitable for some of these functions.)

● Spirituality: Priests, pastors, rabbis, teachers, mentors, and life coaches (Always nurture your spiritual side. This is where true peace, joy, and happiness come from)

● Career and Business: Teachers, mentors, consultants and coaches (A good mentor, teacher, consultant or coach can greatly accelerate your progress. They can help you to set the right goals, motivate you, and keep you on track so that you will achieve those goals. And they can keep you from making costly mistakes or blunders. Look for people with exceptional expertise, knowledge, experience and a proven track record. Their advice will be priceless.)

● Sports and Hobbies: Teachers, mentors, and coaches (A good teacher, mentor, or coach will ensure that you learn the fundamentals and can speed up skill development by as much as 30 percent. Virtual coaches can be good in this area.) (Note: I have written a book on skill development which goes into much greater detail on how to successfully learn new skills. You can see it on Amazon.com here.)

● Family and Relationships: Priests, pastors, rabbis, teachers, mentors, and life coaches (Relationships take a lot of work and constant nurturing. But they can bring great joy into your life. Use these advisors to get help when you need it.)

● Learning and education: Teachers, mentors, coaches and books (Learning is a life-long process. Never stop. And become an avid reader. Read every day.)

The following diagram illustrates what your Personal Advisory Team will look like.

Your Personal Advisory Team Visual Diagram

The Benefits of a Personal Advisory Team:

Building a Personal Advisory Team will pay dividends in your life. Here are some of the more obvious benefits:
● Avoids overload by delegating things you are not expert in to others who are experts
● Allows you to focus on your core competencies and the most important things in life and business
● Keeps you from making many costly mistakes and blunders.
● Helps you be successful in every area of your life
● Ensures that no area of your life is neglected

Action Plan:

No matter where you are in life, no matter what your age, no matter what your circumstances, start building your Personal Advisory Team. Here’s your Cerebral Advantage Action Plan on how to do just that:

Step 1: Generate a vision for your life. You must know what you want in life and where you are going. You must know exactly what your ideal life will look like. And don’t just focus on your work or career. Your life vision must also include your family, social life, hobbies, lifestyle, etc. Your life vision is crucial, so take the time to do it right.

Step 2: Next, develop clearly defined goals for each area of your life. You must know exactly what you want to accomplish in each area. This is crucial for an advisor to be able to help you.

Step 3: Identify top-notch people who can support you in each key area of your life.
● Having someone you can meet in person to advise and counsel you is always best. However, if you can’t find someone of the right caliber right away or if you can’t afford a top-notch personal advisor yet, the next best approach is to select a virtual advisor. This should be someone who is truly outstanding in their field, a world leader, someone who has already achieved great success and who is also a good teacher, whom you can access through their books or newsletters. They must be someone you trust and who can give you clear, actionable advice.
● In some cases, one person can help you in multiple areas of your life. For example, the same life coach could advise you in the areas of spirituality, career, family and relationships.

Step 4: Evaluate the people you have found and select the members of your team:
● Select only top-notch people
● Make sure they buy into your vision for your life. You want enablers, not boat anchors.
● Be sure to check their track records and get references from people who have already worked with them. Never select unknowns or settle for second best. And never guess about their credentials.
● For virtual advisors, check the reviews for their books or newsletters. Look for honest testimonials of successful results. The information you get from a virtual advisor must be concise, trustworthy, and actionable. You don’t want to have to read through volumes of information and try to digest it yourself. This just wastes your valuable time. You want your virtual advisor to tell you what to do, why to do it, and how to do it. That’s all. Remember, you are looking for advice, not an education.
● And don’t neglect the spiritual side of life. We have three facets to our lives: Mental, physical, and spiritual. These must all be considered equally and each one developed and nurtured. If you neglect your spirituality you will never be a complete person nor find true happiness or fulfillment.

Step 5: Create a visual diagram similar to the one given above with the names of your Personal Advisory Team members and their function and place it in a prominent position where you will see it every day. Visualization is an important aspect of success and having a visual diagram helps you internalize the importance of your Personal Advisory Team. It will also remind you to attend to and nurture each area of your life. You can create your diagram with a mind mapping program like FreeMind, the free program that I used, or you can use the drawing tools in programs like Excel and PowerPoint.

Step 6: Consult with your team members regularly. Set a schedule for follow-up meetings with each member and adhere to it religiously. Some members you will meet with frequently, while others only occasionally, as needed. Reach out to your team whenever you encounter a problem or need advice. And continually seek their wisdom.

Step 7: Periodically evaluate the performance of each of your team members. If you find someone not measuring up to your expectations, replace them immediately. Don’t delay. It’s just too important.

Step 8: Once you have surrounded yourself with a top-level team, treat them well. Never be cheap or try to shortchange them. Always treat them as the valued partners they are.

Putting Your Team to Work:

Once you have your Personal Advisory Team in place, start utilizing it right away.

Get an annual physical from your doctor. You need to stay healthy. If you don’t have your health, then life is going to be much more difficult and limited. And early detection of diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease is crucial. These diseases can strike at any age, so don’t think that you are safe just because you are young. And see a dentist regularly. Gum disease can lead to heart problems, so keep your teeth and gums in good shape.

Next, get your finances in order:
● Set up a mandatory savings program where you automatically put at least 10 percent, and preferably more, of your income into a savings or investment account every month. Treat this as a mandatory payment, just like your utility bill or your rent or mortgage. As they say, pay yourself first before even thinking about getting that new iPhone.

● Get a financial adviser and establish an investment program. You want your money to grow over your entire working life. Contribute to your investment fund every month. If you want a more hands-on approach to investing without spending the time to become an expert yourself, following the buy and sell recommendations of a newsletter might be a viable approach. Two newsletters that I have used in the past and found to be affordable and reputable are the Oxford Club Communique (OxfordClub.com) and Dr. David Eifrig’s Retirement Millionaire Newsletter (StansberryResearch.com). Please note that I am not qualified nor licensed to give financial advice and I mention these newsletters only for informational purposes as examples that I have found to be useful in the past. Be sure to do your own due diligence before investing your money with a financial advisor, broker, or before selecting and following a newsletter.

● Work with your accountant or tax advisor to minimize your tax burden. Depending on your situation, a professional may be able to save you a lot of money each year.

● Work with your lawyer to prepare a will, durable power of attorney, and living will. If you have these already, fine. If not, get them done right away. Your lawyer can also help you with other aspects of estate planning, including setting up trusts if you have a large estate. Estate planning is important to everyone but is something that is neglected by many people, especially when they are young.

Your next area of focus should be on your career. Work with your mentor, teacher, consultant or coach to start setting goals for where you want to be in five or ten years and set a path for getting there. Then have your advisor hold you accountable and keep you on track at all times.

Work with the other members of your team, as needed.

And, again, don’t neglect your spiritual side. I would highly recommend joining a church or religious organization of some kind and doing some volunteer work. This is all good for the soul.

Summing Up:

A successful life is one that is balanced and well rounded. And we should always strive for excellence in every area of our life.

The secret to accomplishing these things is not to burn ourselves out trying to learn everything and to do everything ourselves but, instead, to build a team of Personal Advisors that can counsel us and carry much of the load.

This isn’t hard, nor does it need to be expensive. It’s mostly a matter of committing to do better in all areas of your life.

By building a Personal Advisory Team, your life will be much fuller and you will go much further than you would otherwise.

And at the end of your life, you will have no regrets about neglecting some part of your life.

In his book Working With the Law, Raymond Holliwell recounts a story about a man who had a singular goal in life of getting rich and neglected everything else. At the end of his life, even though he amassed great wealth, he was filled with regrets and considered his life a failure. Here is how Mr. Holliwell describes it:

“I knew a man who determined early in his life to concentrate on accumulating money. He
attained his ambition and became an influential power in his town. He confided in a
friend before he died, saying, ‘I did everything I knew to become rich; I gained riches,
but I lost the love and companionship of my wife and the joy of being a father to our
children. I lost my health and am spending my wealth to regain my health, but
somehow it doesn’t respond. Yes, I learned how to get rich, but I never learned how to
live.’”

Don’t let this be you. Attend to and be successful in all areas of your life.

And build the life of your dreams. Get started today.

Think Right. Live Well.

Other Articles You Might Like:

● The Secret to Making Bold Improvements in Your Life
● The Power of Precise Thinking
● Your Mind Is Like a Garden. Tend It Well.
● 25 Characteristics of Successful People
● There is Magic in the Mornings! Become an Early Riser and Get More Out of Life.
● David Kekich’s 100 Credos: A Formula For Successful Living
● How to Use Questions to Supercharge Your Critical Thinking
● 46 Virtues For Living a More Joyous, Fulfilling and Successful Life
● How To Write a Personal Mission Statement That Brings Clarity and Purpose To Your Life