How to Retire in 12 Months

For me to achieve this goal I really needed a dream team. And I love this bit! I love getting groups of people together to achieve exciting things.

The planning…

With this project I needed a team of people who fitted three criteria…

1. They were particularly awesome at something that would benefit the project

2. They would enjoy being involved and could put up with my eccentricities

3. Their personality and values matched my own

How it happened…

So far I have two main people on the team, Mel and Tess…

One day while perusing Facebook I noticed a status update from a past colleague, from my days in the corporate world… “happy to announce the launch of my internet marketing business”. This was great news as Mel was fab in her job, as the marketing head for our Asia/Pacific region. I arranged a call, explained the concept and product and voila, I had a partner in crime who’s skill set complemented mine beautifully.

While I had known Tess for months it was not until a random conversation in the pub that I found out she was everything we were looking for in a graphic designer and web designer… This was after we had explored so many options we had almost given up! I often find that the people right under my nose have everything I need; I just needed to find out more about them…

I approach team building and resource building in two ways:

1. Uncovering opportunities

Many opportunities for working with people are hidden. To find them you need to ask questions, listen and be interested. If you consider that every person you will ever want to work with is less than 6 degrees away; then it becomes pretty important to find out what people do, what they are passionate about and who they know.

2. Making the most of your networks

This should be a no-brainer. If you need someone with a specific skill ask your networks… In any given day you can make requests for new skilled contacts to hundreds if not thousands of people informally through Twitter, Facebook, Linked in, personal meetings and your email contact list.

My philosophy is that everyone is connected through someone else, so just ask and ask and ask until you find the right people.

Lesson learned…

Listen for what people are good at and what they are passionate about and then get them to do those things for your business, if your team get to do things they love doing your business will rock!