By Rasheed Ali
"Tell me what company thou keepst, and I'll tell thee whatthou art." - Miguel de Cervantes (1547 - 1616) Spanishnovelist.
Growing up I often heard my best friend's father Nick saysomething that I would later realize was a key to success. He said, "Show me who your friends are and I'll tell youwhat you are!"
Well, that was usually followed by a long speech about whyhis son Frank should not have hung out with certain people.
I was like a second son to Nick so I would get to listen inon Frank getting yelled at. By that time, I had alreadybeen homeless and off the streets and working my waythrough High School, so I never thought of hanging out withthe types that Frank did. Of course I was no angel but, Ichose my friends as carefully as I could.
Frank never got the point back then, but Nick knew verywell about the power of association.
You see Nick, grew up the only son of an entrepreneur andbrother to six sisters. Since he was the baby boy, he got alot of attention and love from his father. Although all ofthe children did, Nick got just a little more.
Nick's father the owner of a motel and a constructioncompany could rival the strength and attitude of thestrongest of the strongmen of his day and even ours. Hegrew up with the same mentality of his father AND thestrength to boot!
The problem with Nick was that he associated with thestreet gangs of his day and didn't listen to his fatherwhen he gave him the same speech, "Show me who your friendsare and I'll tell you what you are!"
Associating with the wrong people didn't end there though,later in life he ended up associating himself with the someof the most ruthless mobsters around and as time went on,Nick gained both the wealth and the bad habits these guyshad.
Finally, the days came when his acquired gambling addictiontook all of the wealth away. Although he could have losthis life many times, it took the loss of his money tofinally stop associating himself with these people.
"Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteemyour own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than inbad company." - George Washington (1732 - 1799) US Statesman
Although Nick didn't follow the above advice, he is still agood man and still does great things.After all he took me off the streets, gave me a home andtaught me lessons from his past which also became my key tosuccess.
Like Nick, many people don't realize that wealth byassociation works the same as guilt.
When asked how he intends on being America's first blackbillionaire, Don King said, "By hanging around otherbillionaires!"
The truth of the matter is that whether you want to learnsomething significant or learn to be more successful, thepeople you associate with are the probably going to be oneof the major keys to your success. I'm sure you've heardcountless stories about those "lucky" people who gainedwealth and success through others who were more successfulat the time. I've personally heard and learned about manysuch stories.
Association is one of the reasons that many people pay bigbucks to be mentored by very successful people.
The "Key" reason people do this is: In order to get whatyou want or learn what you want you must go to the source.
Find a personal or business mentor or coach and learneverything you can from them then apply it.
The other part of your key to success by association isthat you will generally attain the average success and/orwealth of your 10 closest friends. The reason for this isthat by associating with people who are more successful orwealthier, you are then able to tap into theirintellectual, spiritual or financial resources.
That my friend, is an enormously critical success factor.To see an example of this, look at marketing online oroffline. You will see that people and businesses oftenassociate themselves with each other (one being moresuccessful than the other) to build both credibility andwealth.
Apply the Success By Association Principle to your businessand life, then buckle up for the ride! It WILL be your keyto success.
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