So, you think you can do it all by yourself?

It’s a simple truth, but an important one to remember:

None of us can succeed in life entirely on our own; we all need help from others.

I have yet to meet anyone who is extraordinarily accomplished in life, who has ever said to me, ‘I didn’t need any help… I did it all by myself.‘

But I have also spoken with many great business leaders, top sports professionals, and luminaries from various disciplines, who all readily attribute much of their personal success to fabulous people they have worked with over the years.

Many of them talk about consciously surrounding themselves with individuals who are ‘better than they are’.

Fundamentally, it’s about creating a dream team of people around us (with different people for different stages in our careers) who can help us to achieve our goals.

Solopreneurs, for example, often thrive much better once they recognise the importance of this… A good friend of mine has been building an amazing one-man business over the last three years. He now firmly believes that he would have scaled far quicker had he involved more people to help him from the beginning.

Help can be attracted and then rewarded in many ways…

We may pay professionals for their advice. We might participate in a community that has common goals and challenges. We may even share profits or equity in a project with those who can add substantial value to it.

Sometimes, it’s just a matter of collaboration (where we give due credit for someone’s contribution and then reciprocate when they need our help).

And sometimes, the help we receive may be free but still incredibly valuable, such as through a good mentoring relationship.

Occasionally, we may attract help from someone who can make a massive difference for us, simply because they want to. They like us and can see the potential in us, or what we are doing, and genuinely want to help us succeed.

Attracting help from such individuals, or those who may want to collaborate with us, advise us, or mentor us, is an art. But some can find this a little challenging as well.

It’s often our mindset that needs to shift first.

One thing we need to do is to become more open to receiving (or attracting) help from other people…

A common problem for many is when we continuously think in terms of ‘I’ or ‘me’. Our thinking then becomes channelled into a more self-centred focus and a narrow approach to our careers. It’s only when we start to think in terms of ‘we’ or ‘our’ that we begin to look outside and embrace the value of others and what they can contribute to us.

And it’s then, when we start perceiving what we can do as ‘a team’ and not just what ‘I can do by myself’, that we can really begin to flourish.

I will leave you with a few thoughts from Frank Arnesen, the legendary Danish soccer player and manager.

“…One’s ego can easily stand in the way if you want to do something good or great - it should never be about you.

When I think about success, it has always been our success as a team of people and not just me.

I think both of these things apply not just to football but to any occupation.

Always look for great people you can surround yourself with and think about what you can do as a team, not just what you can do yourself…”

Frank Arnesen - from his chapter in A Few Wise Words (volume one)

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