Karim’s posterous

There's a certain satisfaction in achieving goals, finding success and taking our careers to new heights. It's exciting, it drives us an it massages our egos. It let's us stand back and say 'there, I did this'. But one lesson I'm starting to learn from the top online Gurus is that you need help to reach your potential.

This league of online Gurus, which I affectionately refer to as the Online Marketing Mafia, are experts in their own rights, but they all take the time to promote each other and each other's products and services. At first this might seem illogical because they could be viewed as competitors. They compete for book deals, speaking gigs, twitter followers and blog visitors. But instead of this, they've taken things to the opposite extreme. They go beyond the concept of 'live & let live' by actively reviewing each others books, they post blogs about each other and even hold each other up as examples of online marketing excellence. If a group of people this smart are taking this approach, there's gotta be something we can learn here.

But I'm not a Guru
Forming a group of people who help and learn from each other doesn't have to be limited to Gurus. I think we can find peers in our industry or field who have a take on things different enough from our own to make teaming up interesting. It doesn't have to be a case of setting up joint ventures. But helping each other, and recognising each other's good work is bound to generate greater returns for everyone. Imagine if you owned a piece of land and farmed it alone, you'd most likely be able to create a more plentiful harvest if you and a few other farmers teamed-up and took turns farming each other's plots of land. So how can we take concrete steps to help and be helped?

Be the first to offer a hand
To create a mutually supporting working relationship with your peers, someone will have to take the first step in the right direction. This can be you (or me). If we make that critical first step to go out and praise the good work of our peers, link through to their blogs, re-tweet their Twitter musings, give them testimonials on linked and help them out, we will send a clear message that you're willing to help. The karma-effect then has room to take place and your peers will start helping and supporting you. Now of course you should be helpful if you can to any people you find interesting, but if you focus on forming these mutually beneficial bonds with people in your industry the results can be more impressive.

Forming your Mafia family
Ok so maybe won't wanna go so far as to form an illegal crime syndicate (although that could be fun!). But wouldn't it be good to have a group of really cool people who you respected and shared an industry with to help support you and your projects and accomplishments? After being the first to demonstrate the power of helping out your peers. You'll most likely start to receive some love back. Keep the momentum up, connect on other levels, maybe get a bit more personal on facebook, go out for some food or some drinks. Meet for lunch and brainstorm some ideas. Who knows what you might come up with. The point is that with a bit of socialising, you can solidify this group of mutually respected people into a group of friends that can help and support each other for a overall better experience for all.

This concept isn't so strange, it's the basis for tribes then societies forming, we're stronger together than apart. I do think that in today's world of never ending work commitments and endless distractions, sometimes we forget the importance of forming bonds with people and taking time to nurture these relationships.