I had an old geometry teacher in high school named Mr.
Gerard that we as a class asked to speak at one of our school's end of the year
award seminars.
He was a great teacher full of wisdom, always told great
stories during class. I especially remember him telling stories about his son Noah
who later we learned might have done work for the CIA.
At that Seminar he congratulated us on being one of his best
classes to teach, how he loved teaching knowing that he might be a witness to
some of the future leaders of our town, State or possible Country.
Before he concluded, he said one thing that hit home with me.
He said, “If you take anything away from my talk, remember this: If you put a
teaspoon of sewage water in a town’s drinking water no matter what you do, you
still in the end are drinking sewage water.” He clarified what he meant. “Every year great
students come and go but in the end move away from their goals due to hanging out with people going down the wrong path.”
In simple terms, What he was telling that packed auditorium of young minds.“You are who you associate with”! Last
weekend, I was fortunate to attend LIFE’s summer Leadership Convention in
Milwaukee WI. One thing I love about the LIFE leadership materials and the
Mental Fitness Challenge is that one of the main highlights of LIFE’s
leadership system is the value it places on associating with individuals who
are out chasing their goals and dreams.
One of the many lessons that I’ve learned working with the
LIFE leadership organization is that if you add up the average income of the 5
closest people you associate with, you can accurately depict that your income
will fall somewhere within that range. That is why I firmly believe that
success is contagious. If you want to grow financially or in your leadership
skills you need to be surrounding yourself and associating with people that are
going in the direction you want to go. As the bible says, “iron sharpens iron.”
In Orrin Woodward’s Book Resolved: 13 Resolutions for Life. He writes in several different chapters about
the importance and the power of association. In Chapter six, Resolved: To Keep
Score in the Game of Life, and also in Chapter 11 Resolved: To develop System
thinking. Orrin talks extensively about the importance of leaders surrounding themselves
with individuals who will push them towards success, and developing a system to
utilize this game plan of association to develop systems to help the individual
accomplish their goals.
We all are called upon to be leaders at some point in our lives. The questions that we need to be asking ourselves is: 1. Are our associations helping or hurting us on our leadership, business, or career journey? 2. Are we making sure we don’t accidentally add that teaspoon of sewage water to our water that we need to sustain us on our journey in living the life we've always wanted? 3. What are we doing to improve our associations? Look forward to hearing peoples responses!
