Successful people always surround themselves with positive, like-minded go-getters.
I’ve heard it said that the most successful people in the world all share certain things in common.
They never stop learning, they never stop growing, and they never stop pushing themselves to new levels. They understand that standing still means that they are falling behind.
When you commit to continuous improvement, you put yourself on a path to lifetime growth, and you come to the understanding that no matter how good you are today, you can be even better tomorrow.
Successful people always surround themselves with positive, like-minded go-getters, which is absolutely vital.
When I was a teenager, my dad would always tell me to stay away from certain kids because they were always in trouble. One day, a few of the “troublemakers” I hung out with and I went to a field to set off fireworks on a dry July day. Keep in mind that we were always told to stay off others’ property and not to play with fireworks without an adult being present. I thought that I would be cool like these other kids and go against my parents and follow the crowd.
Unfortunately, the fireworks sparked a fire that got out of control and burned down a large part of the field. We all took off running and got separated. The police rounded all of us up, and we had to perform community service.
My dad looked at me and asked me if I had learned my lesson. That’s when he told me that “you can’t fly like an eagle when you hang around turkeys.” That always stuck with me.
Fast forward a few years to when I started my shed business at a young age. I always held the folks that I did business with to a high standard based on my dad’s advice from years earlier.
A few years ago, a “supposed” really successful shed seller reached out to me and wanted to meet with me about partnering together to sell sheds. We drove down and met with this individual personally to discuss the plan. I remember thinking to myself that this guy had it figured out when it came to selling big volume sheds. I mean, he was saying all of the right things and was showing me some big sales numbers that got me excited.
After about an hour, I started to get that feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was just not adding up. At the time, I had been selling sheds successfully for 23 years, and something was just not right (a little too good to be true). To make a long story short, I asked him for some references on a few occasions, and voila, he stopped answering my phone calls, and I decided to put the deal on hold for the time being.
Come to find out, I heard his name pop up in the shed industry as being a con-artist that had cost several RTO companies thousands of dollars in fraudulent sales. What if I had done business with this person? What would my reputation now look like if I had taken the risk of partnering with him?
I thank my Lord Jesus every day that I avoided that mess. My dad’s words from years ago rang out loud and true: “You can’t fly like an eagle when you hang around turkeys!”
In closing, I want to share the story of the frog and scorpion. The story goes like this. A frog and a scorpion find themselves next to each other on a riverbank. The scorpion asked the frog if he could hop on his back to get across the river. The frog looked at the scorpion and said, “Are you crazy? Scorpions sting frogs and kill them.” The scorpion kept trying to convince the frog that he would not sting him because the scorpion would drown as well. The scorpion persisted, and finally, the frog agreed to let the scorpion get on his back to get across the river.
About halfway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog. The frog yelled, “Why did you sting me when you promised me that you would not?” The scorpion replied, “I am a scorpion, that’s just what I do.”
The story of the frog and scorpion offers a cautionary tale of being around, or doing business with, the right kind of people. Sometimes you may look at a potential business partner who has had some success, but when you dig deeper or get to know them better, you find out otherwise.
I recommend exercising extreme caution when letting folks into your circle or business. Letting the wrong folks in can cost you not only a friendship but also your business reputation. God Bless.
