Remember when you were growing up and all your Guidance and Counselling teachers kept saying the same thing over and over; that “You are the average equivalent of who your five closest friends are”? That the path and fate of your closest friends somehow directly,or indirectly, affects who you become?
Well, they were not lying.
I always believed this, but only hypothetically, seeing as I had no experience with suchlike repercussions. All through my growing up, I had a very tight circle of friends. I loved to keep it that way. But growing into the “outside world”, as they would refer to it, I came to understand the truth about this statement. Not necessarily through my own experience, but from what I see people going through.
We all come from different backgrounds, but meet different people as we grow. I’m sure you know a few people in your hood who were there as you grew, walked around in cliques, possibly harassed you at one point or another, and as we speak, probably never moved out of home, decided to quit the job hunt and conversely never had any interest in entrepreneurship; and are on drugs.
Why?
The most crucial stage of our growing up is when we are in our adolescent stage and well through to the end of our first quarter life. This is where we make a lot of mistakes because we are still learning, we make a lot of friends who could MAKE or BREAK us; we meet associates and potential business partners at this point of our lives. This is also when we make career choices, and deal with the infamous career versus family choice.
When we are this young, we feel smarter than most; that we can make our decisions without the input of others. However, somehow, subconsciously, we make our decisions based on those around us. Depending on who our friends are, we can have them challenge us to grow and elevate ourselves further up and more towards our goals. Or we can have them sink us deeper into our comfort zones, where all potential becomes obsolete and we get stuck in the same lifestyles as they are.
The company you keep.
The people you interact with are either, “”Yes! You can do it if you put your mind into it!” type of people, or they are the “No, that’s impossible; it’s too much work!” type of people.
It’s entirely up to you.
What do you envision for yourself? I’m sure we all want to be successful and lay on pools of money; but are we realistic about our goals? What are we doing to achieve them? Is there a part of our lifestyles that make it harder or nearly impossible to move forward? Who do we associate with more? Do they inspire us to be better? Do they challenge us?
The company we keep is very important.
While it is absolutely easy to go with the flow, it is equally harder to go against the current.
Dare to be the one that goes against the current.
Being a loner may seem like a tough choice to make, it may even sound a little crazy. But, it is better to walk alone, than to stand in the company of mediocrity.
Dare to excel.
