The thing that I wanted to talk to you guys about today is relationships. We were talking the other week about a growth mindset, and what a major indicator that is to success. Reminder: a growth mindset is looking at mistakes as learning, understanding that there’s going to be failure and mistakes, and even welcoming the opportunity and thinking of yourself as a lifelong learner.
So that’s one major indicator for success. The other one is your network. And how pleased with myself was I, when I was typing into the title, Your Network Is Your Net Worth. I was like, Oh, that’s good. Somebody should write that book. But it’s true.
You may have heard the often quoted “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with” from Jim Rohn. So, think of the five people you hang out with most. You are probably right in the middle in terms of weight, income, energy level, optimism, earning potential…all the things. Some of that stuff is genetically preset. There’s some stuff we can’t really change. But at least 50%, if not more, we can change. So, if you want to change your weight, your energy level, your income, your positivity, your spiritual journey, your whatever, you might need to start hanging out with four different people. Which doesn’t mean we get rid of our old friends, of course not.
My friend, Shasta Nelson is a friendship expert. She’s written three or four books on friendship. And one of the things she said that really struck me was- we replace about 50% of our friends every seven years. So, it is a natural cycle in friendship for people to sort of cycle in and out of your life.
It’s okay. You’re not meant to bring everybody with you on every step of the entire journey. People are with you for a while, and then they peel off and may come back. There’s just nothing more valuable than having a network of people (and network is such an awful word), but having connections with people who like you, respect you, will support you, that you can go to ask questions, sell things to people who are fans/friends.
And let me be clear for the entrepreneurs: your friends are not your clients. Maybe one or two of your friends might want it or might be interested in being a client, but mostly your friends are not your clients. Your family is not your clients. They’re not in your life to be your clients.
They’re not going to appreciate your work. They don’t care anymore than you care what they do when they go into their office. But, your friends are a great bridge to clients. The friends of your friends, the colleagues of your friends, the families of your friends: those people make great clients.
So if you have people who will refer you, who will recommend you, who will speak up for you, then you have something really worthwhile.
