In business and life, if you want to be successful, you need to surround yourself with successful people. This is a major ingredient to some of my recent successes. I’ve only been a full-time no guaranteed paycheck entrepreneur for less than a year now.
I would not be writing you this if I hadn’t taken a “friendventory” like I did over a year ago. A friendventory is essentially taking inventory of the people you are choosing to spend time with.
If these people weren’t making me feel good about myself, were lazy, or not pushing me to be better I chose to spend less time with them.
Having Ambition
I’ve always been an ambitious person and it hit me around 4-5 years ago that I was not going to clock in and clock out for a job. I always saw myself as an entrepreneur. If I was to be successful I needed to start associating myself with successful entrepreneurs.
So here I am today working alongside Inc. 500 entrepreneur Brian D. Evans building the go-to publication for unconventional wisdom from millennial entrepreneurs Influencive.
Having The Right Attitude
Growing up I used to be a huge complainer. Now that I’m a full-time entrepreneur, I have minimized my complaining. I’m choosing to do something about my problems instead. I don’t like hanging around people who complain or are negative towards life. That usually drains my energy instead of fueling it.
People who do something about their struggles, or take action to have a better life are the people I enjoy being around. Being around a successful entrepreneur like Brian has taught me this. He’s a positive, easy-going guy that doesn’t let a little bump in the road get to him.
Instead, he uses adversity to fuel his success. Move on from it, and turn whatever it is into something positive. That’s a winning formula for dealing with a stressful situation.
Turn it into something positive. Try it, I think you’ll be surprised by how effective it can be.
Persistence is King
The successes he has endured were not just merely handed to him. He worked his way up to where he is today. He wanted to build a million dollar company, so he did it. More than once to be exact.
Now he’s building Influencive, which arguably has more potential than any other business he’s built before.
You don’t need to be a millionaire to be someone I want to hang around with. You need to be someone with ambition, drive, and a positive outlook on life.
Life is too short to spend it with people you don’t enjoy being around.
Create Value
Something that Brian does for a lot of people is he creates value. I’ve read this countless times and see it firsthand with Brian. He brings value to people before he asks them for something in return.
This was one of the ways I was able to partner with Brian. More than once I showed him value, without asking for anything in return. Whether that was designing an infographic, writing a blog post, or giving him my honest opinion.
If you are wondering how you can find someone like Brian to partner with. You need to first identify a few people you would like to reach out to. When you find who that is, you need to create value for them.
Is that sharing their latest article? Is it commenting on their posts for an entire week? Or is it buying their product and writing a raving review?
Every person will be a little different. So pick what you think will provide them with the most value.
If you have big aspirations like I do and want to make a difference in the world. Stop procrastinating and wasting your time with people who don’t bring you value. Surround yourself with people who bring you energy.
When you do this, so many positive things will happen.