I did not invent the term, but I own it in many ways. Without any awareness, I needed and created one beginning as early as 1949. So, the other night I was thinking about the inner circle, and other thoughts came to light.
When I first began to look at the importance of an inner circle, I thought of key people with unique talents and experiences that were also leaders in their own way. When together, our level of communication and dialogue made a quantum leap; at least, I thought so. But now I realize it is much more complex than I have ever thought.
First, the people I trusted to be in the circle were excellent leaders because they had excellent leadership. This is not an insignificant insight. To further explain: People in the inner circle, although selected because they are superb employees, are employees—not entrepreneurs or professionals running their own businesses or enterprise. Furthermore, the actual leader and creator of the inner circle may also be an employee and likely a member of yet another inner circle. Regardless, all inner circles must be empowered by their respective leaders.
While making Lenette’s dream of a Hotel for Youth in Las Vegas a reality, I also created and empowered a brilliant inner circle. It was part of a sequence of extraordinary events. First, Lenette’s dream, then finding the investors, and then Lennette realizing her design for a Youth Hotel in Kirk Kerkorian’s International Hotel. Was it all just Serendipity?
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