I have heard for years, before T|Mobile even existed, that the 5 (Adult) people that you spend the most time with will shape your life. You will become like them in most every way. The amount of money that you earn will be near the average of these people, your ethics will be similar to the ones they have, your hobbies will start to match them and in many ways you will reflect these people in your life.
For me I have two people who I spend a lot of time with at this time, my wife and my business partner. But beyond that the people are always changing. And this is the key, when I decide who to spend time with I am REALLY deciding who I want to be. Do I want to be like my friend who is a great speaker, a multi-millionaire, great to his family and a great all around guy….well of course I do. Do I really want to be like the people who don’t care, who just do the minimum in life, and have bad things in their life……well no I don’t. My problem in my life, I hate to admit, is that many times I spend time with the second type of person. I don’t really know why I do this, it is not in line with my goals but yet I find myself in this position. Maybe it is because when I am with them I am the one who knows everything, I am the one who is in charge. When I am with successful people it often points out my flaws and challenges me, logically this is what I want but often emotionally it is hard to handle after a while. For a few years there I strayed off course. I seem to have done this a few times in my life. I imagine where I would be if I did better, if I was bold enough to do everything that I imagine.
So how does this relate to business, well your personal development is the KEY to your success in life and therefore your success in business. You choose who are your 5 Faves, and that choice determines you whole life. Choose wisely.
I have heard about this concept many times in my lifetime and I think it is a valid argument. Bottom line, if you want to be successful, hang out with successful people. But…….don’t you feel more comfortable and just breathe easier socializing with people you click with. And better yet, being the mentor to the “not so” successful people puts a feather in the cap as well if you can help them rise to a higher standard. What I am trying to say here is there is a reason you gravitate to the your five favs. They are your friends, they understand you and you them most of the time, and they get you. To me that feeling of belonging is worth more than than any level of perceived success learned from high achievers if you feel uncomfortable. Lastly, you have to define success and figure out what is important to make this whole discussion worthwhile. For instance, could their be a middle class, blue collar, worker in your five favs that is high on life itself just because he feels blessed just to be alive and very glad to collect his 30,000 dollar a year salary? hmm. That is the guy I want to learn from cos I still haven’t figured that one out myself. We always want more. As my girlfriend always says “why can’t we just be happy with what we have and who we are with” I don’t know?