In Five Years You Will Be the Average of Your Five Best Friends

The Laws of Association are far more powerful than people give them credit for. Do you remember when you were growing up and you did something stupid with your friends? A common parental response would be, “Why did you do That???” The teenage reply, “All my friends were doing it, and they seemed to be fine!” To which they would retort, “If all of your friends jumped of f a Cliff, would you do that Too??” “No,” We would mutter.

Does that sound familiar? Is that a conversation that you remember having with your parents? Are you a parent that has recently had a conversation like that with one of your children? “If all of your best friends were jumping off a cliff, would you do it with them?” Are you sure the answer is “No” to that simple question?

Several Years ago, I read a book on an Amway distributor that built a distributorship to over 200,000 people in a very short period of time in the 1970′s. One of the random points that jumped off the page and spoke to me was, “In five Years, Your Income will be the Average of your Five Best Friends.” That simple phrase whacked me upside the head like Muhammad Ali on George Foreman.

I got to thinking about that phrase, and I started looking at everyone I knew to see if it applied. Sure enough, I didn’t find one exception to the rule. I’m sure there is an anomaly somewhere, as there always is, but for the most part… take a look at the evidence. The successful people that you know, who do they hang out with? The broke people that you know, what is their greatest circle of influence? Drunks hang out with drunks, athletes hang out with athletes, Top Dog Network Marketers mentor and hang out with other Industry Giants, and multi-millionaires, and so on.

I even took a deeper look and quantified things that had nothing to do with money. Do the circles of friends that you see typically talk the same? Do they dress the same? Do they act the same? A portion of this is that like minded people gravitate toward one another. The other part is that we become who we hang out with. We pick up the expressions, mannerisms and habits of our closest cohorts! It’s the “Chameleon Effect.”

Try and spend your time hanging out with Ice-Heads for a long period of time without trying ice. Go to the bar everyday to be the “Designated Driver.” Good luck with that one. I’m sure most people reading this are familiar with the “Crabs in a Bucket” parable.

When catching crabs, one can fill the bucket to the top without putting a lid on it. Whenever one of the crabs tries to escape, another crab reaches over to pull that crab back down. Unfortunately, people are the same way.

There are a lot of people that don’t want to see you “Escape” the rut system. Your success is a constant reminder of their failure, and it is a lot Easier to Drag You Down, than it is to suck in their gut to go and make something of themselves. I don’t like it either, I’m just calling out the facts.

I have a few questions for you as a closing for this post today. Are there any crabs in your life that are holding you back? Are you making the mistake of Being a Crab to Someone Else’s Dreams? Based on your current friends, What is Your Average Self Going to Look Like 5 Years from Now? Perhaps you are saying the same thing to yourself that I was when I first read that quote,

“Damn, I’m Going To Need Some

New Friends…”

My final question is this: “If your best friends in the world jumped off a cliff, would you do it with them?” Seriously.

Please comment and leave your feedback and insight about the laws of association. If you have a good story to share, feel free to tell it here. And of course, if you got some great value from this, be sure to share the love and post this to Facebook, Digg, Tweet it, or just hit the “Like” button below. Thank You.

To The Building of Your Massive Empire,