Some psychologists believe that you are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with. Whether this is accurate or not, the truth is we are influenced by everyone around us to some degree. This is why it’s important to surround ourselves with positive and highly productive people. Our environment should work for our success, not against it. 🙂
It’s not that we should trivialize or avoid negative people. We can treat everyone with the respect they deserve. But it would be beneficial to us if we make a conscious effort to spend more time with successful people. For example, to reach my goal of becoming independently wealthy I like to surround myself with friends who have the following personality traits.
- They can see the big picture.
- They don’t make excuses and know it’s up to themselves to make things better if it’s important enough to them.
- They have or plan to have lots of resources, ie: wealth.
- They are optimistic about the future.
- They are curious about the world.
This is just my personal list I’ve thrown together. But there are many different definitions for what a high quality or successful person is. Of course if you work in the music industry, then you should surround yourself with “creative” people. We should also be aware of our biases. Being surrounded with too many “like minded” friends may trap us in an echo chamber of similar opinions. Doing so could make it difficult for us to expand our knowledge.
Unfortunately we can’t change the cards we’ve been dealt. But we can make the most out of our situations by developing the best environment for us to thrive. Part of this means choosing the right people to surround ourselves with. We can’t control what other people think, but we can manage our social circle, and choose who to hang out with. 🙂
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Random Useless Fact:
Even though the children below are born from different parents, they are actually siblings, genetically speaking.
I agree very much on you with all you said. Like you mentioned too, I like surrounding myself with people who have the same profound values but with different interests or passions. Sometimes it opens other horizons and solutions.
Let’s also not forget that we can be a source of inspiration for others. Nothing big-head saying it. We all have strengths that others can look up to.
Cheers,
Mike
Learning from others while helping others to learn. It’s how we can all grow together. 🙂
My network of people isn’t as strong as Mr.W, as he’s surrounded by a lot of smart and wealthy people. That’s same with my sister. However, I feel like I should just know my sister or my husband, and they would open up these opportunities for me. For instance:
In high school, while I was focus on advancing academically, my sister’s circle is huge. She got me to join a few clubs in the school. I then could put this on my resume when I was applying for college. That made me look like I’m super social. ehheeh but I was only a geek. LOL 🙂
As my husband, he has all these company party that I get to go to. LOL 🙂
Good for you. 🙂 I’m already pretty experienced leveraging money. I should learn to be more like you and also leverage a network of people.
“They are optimistic about the future.”
Blind optimism is okay for children, but not adults. There needs to be some degree of justification for such an outlook. It amazes me that people will have children, or make other huge life changing decisions, without at least considering the state of the global economy, among other things. The “everything will work out” mantra is a great way to be blind-sided by financial hardships.
That’s a great point. Aristotle said we shouldn’t take our thinking to the extreme. Most people who start their own company and believe they will become billionaires are simply deluding themselves. 🙂 Optimism is good, but being overly optimistic without a rational premise can lead to disappointments.
[…] Over at Freedom 35 Blog, Liquid presents some timeless advice that certainly bears repeating. If you surround yourself with successful people, you’ll lift yourself up. It might be simple advice, but it works, dammit. I especially […]