Surround Yourself With Successful People

This next article is part of an ongoing series here at TSB Magazine called The Success Principles. The series is based on the 64 principles laid out by Jack Canfield in his course of the same name. If youre new, I always suggest starting any series from the beginning.

Principle 25: Surround Yourself With Successful People

I talk a lot about my time in the restaurant business in many of my articles.  Much of what I write is praise for the easy money it provided me, along with an unbelievable social circle that entertained me for years.  But there was one HUGE drawback that I do not discuss often about my time in the business.  There was one reason that in the peak of my social dominance I decided to walk away…

That reason is I was getting sucked into what Jack Canfield refers to as “the ain’t it awful club.”

There are two types of people-anchors and motors.  You want to lose the anchors and get with the motors because the motors are going somewhere and they’re having more fun.  The anchors will just drag you down.  Wyland- World-renowned marine artist

While a handful of the people I worked with were college students earning extra money, a larger percentage of the people I worked with were lifers.  These were people who were making a career out of waiting tables.  These people had given up on whatever dreams they once possessed.  And what was worse is that they felt the need to crush the dreams of everyone they came in contact with.  They wanted to make lifers out of all of us.

These lifers were constantly complaining about the customers.  They were always complaining about the management, their co-workers, the government, and the economy.  Everyone was to blame for their lost dreams except themselves.

I could not be apart of that  So I walked away.

Canfield says:

Until you reach the point of your self-development where you no longer allow people to affect you with their negativity, you need to avoid toxic people at all costs.  You’re better off spending time alone than spending time with people who will hold you back with their victim mentality and their mediocre standards.

Make a conscious effort to surround yourself with positive, nourishing, and uplifting people- people who believe in you, encourage you to go after your dreams, and applaud your victories. Surround yourself with possibility thinkers, idealists, and visionaries.

There are lots of places to find successful people.  Join a professional association.  Attend your professional conferences.Join the chamber of commerce.  Join the country club.  Join the young presidents organization or you the young entrepreneurs organization  Volunteer for leadership positions. Join civic groups like Kiwanis, Optimists International, and Rotary International.  Volunteer to serve with other leaders. Attend lectures, symposia, courses, clinics, camps, and retreats taught by those who have already achieved what you want to achieve.  Do a search on meetup.com for groups in your area that fall into any of these categories.

If you are going to be successful, you have to start hanging out with the successful people.  You need to ask them to share their success strategies with you  Then try them on and see if they fit for you.  Experiment with doing what they do, reading what they read, thinking the way they think, and so on.  If the new ways of thinking and behaving work, adopt them  If not, drop them, and keep looking and experimenting.

Lead the Field

In this economy it is critically important that you strive to be the best you can be.  One of the early programs that I found great value in straight out of college was Earl Nightingale’s classic Lead the Field.  It is still one of the most well reviewed success resources of all time.