No One Achieves Success Alone
People need People
If you’re working with others, everything becomes easier.
Every Polymath in history had a network to rely on. Da Vinci had the other Renaissance intellectuals, Socrates had his school, Steve Jobs had Wozniak and close friends, Elon Musk was a part of the PayPal Mafia — a group of former PayPal employees and founders who have since founded and/or developed additional technology companies from Tesla to YouTube to LinkedIn to Palantir and others.
Elon Musk, disruptive tech, and the 'Paypal Mafia' | EVANNEX Aftermarket Tesla Accessories
Benefits of a Community:
No one achieves their goals alone & what the PayPal Mafia demonstrates is if you surround yourself by similar high performers, you not only become like them but also can ask for advice & grow faster than if you worked alone.
If you have a specific skill or interest, then you’ll have an easier time finding a group of like-minded people. For example, sports groups, book clubs, maker spaces, and other groups can be found on Facebook Gorups or other social media sites or a quick Google search.
Here are 3 Broad Networks that will 10x your Polymathic Journey:
Junto Group
The Junto Group was founded in 1727 by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia to debate questions of morals, politics, and natural philosophy, and to exchange knowledge of business affairs. It’s a safe space to brainstorm and grow.
The DaVinci Network:
Created by Waqas Ahmed who wrote a seminal book on Polymathy titled: The Polymath: Unlocking the Power of Human Versatility
The DaVinci Network is a Global Network of people dedicated to exploring, optimizing, and promoting many-sided human potential at the individual, organizational and societal levels. They provide many services:
Da Vinci Masterclass (paid cohort) which leverages the art and science of multi-disciplinary thinking to generate unique insights and creative solutions for corporate, educational and cultural projects worldwide.
The Polymath Festival
Various Podcasts episodes
It’s a great site to browse different resources and see how prevalent the idea of Polymathy is.
The Silent Book Club
The Silent Book Club is different than most book clubs. In the Silent Book Club, you bring your own book to read for a while, then spend the rest of the time talking with everyone about what they’re reading.
It’s a great way to connect with different people who read books ranging from children's books to textbooks to Shakespeare to people doing homework or taking notes.