How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life pdfdrive com

3. Shared Thinking Brings More Maturity than Solo Thinking
As much as we would like to think that we know it all, each of us is probably
painfully aware of our blind spots and areas of inexperience. When I first started
out as a pastor, I had dreams and energy, but little experience. To try to
overcome that, I attempted to get several high-profile pastors of growing
churches to share their thinking with me. In the early 1970s, I wrote letters to the
ten most successful pastors in the country, offering them what was a huge
amount of money to me at the time ($100) to meet me for an hour, so that I could
ask them questions. When one said yes, I’d visit him. I didn’t talk much, except
to ask a few questions. I wasn’t there to impress anyone or satisfy my ego. I was
there to learn. I listened to everything he said, took careful notes, and absorbed
everything I could. Those experiences changed my life.
You’ve had experiences I haven’t, and I’ve had experiences you haven’t. Put
us together and we bring a broader range of personal history—and therefore
maturity—to the table. If you don’t have the experience you need, hook up with
someone who does.

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4. Shared Thinking Is Stronger than Solo Thinking
Philosopher-poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, “To accept good advice
is but to increase one’s own ability.” Two heads are better than one—when they
are thinking in the same direction. It’s like harnessing two horses to pull a
wagon. They are stronger pulling together than either is individually. But did you
know that when they pull together, they can move more weight than the sum of
what they can move individually? A synergy comes from working together. That
same kind of energy comes into play when people think together.

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