The Junto and The Inklings - Career Lessons

We spend a lot of time and energy learning about highly successful individuals so that we can emulate them in hopes of gaining the same success. Have you tried a lot of this with no tangible results? The key is that it is not who they are or what they do. Real success is more related to how they do it. Most of us tackle our career as if it is purely an individual endeavor. It is not what many of the great minds in our history have done. In this post, we'll take a look at two very different but highly successful approaches: the Junto and the Inklings.

One of the first brilliant minds that used a rather unique method for achieving greatness was Benjamin Franklin. He became famous for being a scientist, inventor, statesman, printer, philosopher, musician and economist. How many of us have excelled at so many things? However, his real genius started at the age of 21 when he began to set the stage for one of his best creations.

An outgoing, social individual, Franklin had become acquainted with some of the businessmen at a local pub, who eventually became members of his club for mutual improvement and knowledge. In 1727, Benjamin Franklin created the Junto. Surrounded by men of similar intellectual interests, he recognized that the unifying force of this diverse group was an inquiring spirit and devotion to self-improvement.

Every member had to produce one or more queries on any point of Morals, Politics or Natural Philosophy. To guide and focus the conversations, Franklin developed a list of questions. These questions outlined how Junto could help its members in protecting their reputation, meeting influential people, accomplishing individual goals, advising on personal issues and much more.

The Junto was an extremely successful collaboration. It gave us our first public library, the first public hospital, volunteer fire departments, police departments, paved streets, the University of Pennsylvania and more.

Franklin wasn't the only brilliant mind to see the power of mutual development groups. In 1926, two professors at Oxford University established a close friendship bound by their many common interests. Who were they? They were J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. These two scholars created their own mutually supportive group, called the Inklings.

Membership in the Inklings was informal and flexible, but always included Lewis and Tolkien. They met on Thursday evenings in Lewis' apartment and on Tuesday for lunch at "The Eagle and Child," an Oxford pub popularly known as "The Bird and Baby." At these meetings, they read and discussed literary works in progress and almost everything else under the sun.

The meetings often began with Lewis as host inviting someone to share a chapter from a manuscript, read aloud, and then submit themselves to the assembled crew of Inklings for commentary. A veritable writer's studio, no holds barred, but all commentary focused on improving not denigrating the works of their authors.

In retrospect, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of their association and productivity was that they were successful amateurs at the very things they loved-each of them becoming accomplished as writers outside of the fields and professions that brought them their livelihoods. They wrote and they met for the sheer joy of it, as well as for the reinforcement of their brazen countercultural convictions about the world at large and the world to come. The real success of the Inklings is something we all revel in; that is, great works such as the Lord of the Rings and the Chronicles of Narnia.

Both the Junto and the Inklings are great examples of collaboration and how groups can contribute to individual accomplishment. If you're tired of trying to climb the ladder of success by yourself, you should be encouraged to create a similar approach to that Franklin, Tolkien and Lewis utilized. It certainly worked for them. The benefits to such an approach are numerous and should not be overlooked by those choosing to advance their career solely through their own efforts. Imagine the success that can be gained by focusing your Junto on career development. You could gain considerable insight into developing a feasible career plan, learning new skills, obtaining different perspectives on your ideas, increasing the size of your network, and so on. You define the limits and boundaries. You define your success. Now, that's a plan.