Have you ever heard the saying “Your Net-work determines your Net-worth” ?

In it’s simplest form, this means that if surround yourself with positive and successful people then you will be positive and successful. Naturally, if you surround yourself with the opposite type of people, then that’s what you will get.

For anyone that knows a really successful person (or 2) then you will know that there a number of things that they do on a regular basis to achieve and maintain their success. We will go into some of these in the coming posts, however for now I want to focus on why it is important to be aware of who is influencing you.

You see everyday we are making endless numbers of choices. We choose what to focus and and what things mean to us (perception and perspective). We choose who to spend time with and ultimately whom to listen to. And it is this last choice that I want to discuss here – who are you spending time with and who are you listening to?

Now if you aren’t as successful as you want to be, I am not saying that you necessarily need to go out and get rid of all of your friends/family (although I have met some people that could probably benefit from doing this!). What it means is that you need to be aware of the influences that your network is having on your emotional and physical life. Ask yourself this question: Is this person helping me move towards my goals? If the answer is yes then great! If the answer is no then perhaps it is time to move those people to the outer circle. Truly successful people have others in their inner circles that are actively and passively helping them move in the right direction. And don’t forget that human nature (or God, or the Universe, or the “Secret”, or whatever higher plan you believe in) will make sure that you always meet your expectations. So if your expectations are low and you are hanging around unsuccessful people then you will achieve little. Have you ever heard the saying: “If you aim at nothing you will hit it every time”?

If however your expectations are high and you are striving towards a massive goal with purpose, and you are surrounded and supported in your efforts, then look out world because here you come!

I once did this exercise with a client and they uncovered amazing personal relationship resource – they were part of a church group that actually turned out to be very well connected with a politician. Talk about massive amounts of power and leverage!. One of the greatest things that I get out of taking on mentoring clients and teaching them how to set up Joint Ventures in their own business, is like-minded people that I can work closely with. I get to become part of their inner circle (which equals access to their networks) and they get to become part of mine. This creates a great win-win relationship.

So my suggestion to everyone here is to do an assessment of your network (and no, this doesn’t mean you provide everyone you know a 16 page questionnaire to fill out) – take a really objective look at the people that you spend the most time with. Find out who people are and what they do. I suspect that you might even be surprised at who you can get access to, but never really noticed before.

Again, sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees, so take a step back and look at the big picture.

As always, whatever you do, doing it with greatness – go hard or go home!

Chris Hiller