Business Education Part 3: Getting The Right Friends

2 Jul, 2007 How To, Education Brian Armstrong

Business Education Through Networking A few days ago I told you about a trick I use to get more learning done every day: I listen to audio books while I’m driving around town, exercising, and traveling. And it allows me to finish a book per week that I wouldn’t otherwise have time to read.

Then I told you about a trick I use to get more reading done: speed reading and speed comprehension. Yes it is real, and I was able to double my reading rate in one month. Anyone can do the same, in fact you may be able to do even better!

Well today I’m going to tell you about the third and final way I get more learning done every day. Like the previous two tips, this one happens AUTOMATICALLY. In other words, I don’t have to take any additional time out of my day to get the benefit. It is built into my life so that it happens no matter what, which is the real power.

The secret is this: I surround myself with successful people.

In other words, I make friends with people who are knowledgeable, full of great ideas, and happy to share them.

When I spend time with my friends, we inevitably talk about the work we’ve been doing, what’s been working, what hasn’t been working, and what we’re excited about. These discussions always leave me feeling either inspired about the success they are experiencing, or with new ideas that I can apply to my own business.

Quick story: I recently went to go see a speaker named Chris Wasden, who is a successful entrepreneur and founded several medical device companies. His talk was informative and insightful, and afterwards I ran into an old friend. We caught up over a cup of coffee, discussed the speech, and talked a bit about her new accounting business. Just as we were wrapping things up, she casually mentioned that she had put up a post on craigslist.com, a free classified website. She said it had been an effective way to bring in new business for her, and she suggested I give it a try.

Well, I promptly went home and put up a quick post (it was entirely free) and by the END OF THE DAY I had new client for my own business.

That was money in my pocket, just because of a quick conversation with a friend.

I knew about that particular website, craigslist.com, before our discussion that day, but it took a conversation with a good friend to remind me to actually use it!

But it wasn’t just any friend. It was a friend with similar interests, who was successful, positive, and willing to share.

Most people do the opposite: they spend time with their same old friends, who are stuck in their same old jobs, and have few aspirations in life. It is quite literally impossible to spend time with negative or unsuccessful people, and NOT have it rub off on you.

So make an effort to surround yourself with people who know more than you do. Find friends who are entrepreneurs. Find friends who are positive. And find friends who are willing to share their ideas. They will AUTOMATICALLY start pushing you toward owning a successful business, whether you like it or not!

With these three secrets, I hope you start getting more learning done EVERY DAY. Remember: listen to audio books, learn to speed read, and surround yourself with successful people.

This post is part of a series on Business Education

3 Comments so far »

Adam Donkus said,

Wrote on July 3, 2007 @ 1:06 pm

Friends can either be a blessing or a curse, a curse that is if the phrase guilty by association has negative implications on your life.

Just came across your blog via your Feedburner post on Problogger. The effectiveness of guest blogging is really a great way to get your name and site out there.
I will have to work up the courage and do it myself eventually.
Love your 30 day series, although only had time to read the first several days, will subscribe so I can read the rest.
Adam

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Bruce Donohue said,

Wrote on July 4, 2007 @ 11:14 am

friends and family are the first to try to undermine or torpedo an idea if it doesn’t fit into their frame of reference or their threshold level for risk. My parents were both gov’t. workers at NSA and had a job lined up for me. They were all about “security”. They thought they must have somehow adopted me or dropped me on my head when I embarked on a business career. Of course they came around when I started making more than both of them combined. It was a never ending source of consternation for me that they were not only not supportive until that moment but actually even tried to sabotage my efforts either subconsciencly or not. Now they refer me customers…go figure.
When I joined the Undergraduate Entrepreneur’s club at the University of Maryland I met like minded people I could bounce my ideas off of. Although in finishing , I dare say that I don’t always want just supportive people(esp. yes men) because I am the eternal optimist and it’s good to have someone to be yin to my yang when it comes to spending money and making business direction altering strategies who will make me think through something
enough to verify that it will legitimately work out
by testing the concept first , where my inclination would be a take no prisoners, forge ahead, and think on the way approach(which leads to trouble sometimes.)Bruce Donohue

[Reply]
Brian Armstrong said,

Wrote on July 5, 2007 @ 11:19 am

I sympathize Bruce. For years my parents would keep subtly suggesting I get a job every time I spoke to them, like this was some faze I would grow out of!
Brian

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