There’s a mantra that says your income will be the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So, what friends you choose to have in your life will help determine where you end up in life, good or bad.
Even though you need to choose your friends wisely, don’t avoid someone just because they don’t make a high salary, but do be deliberate about whom you spend time with.
If you work a corporate job, the people you work with will be the ones you spend the majority of your time with, communicating with if you’re working remotely and they will be the ones who will be influencing you. If those people already live the lifestyle you want, that’s great. However if you are a business owner (or just want to become one) and you work in corporate America, you won’t be surrounded by your tribe. At least not yet. To find your entrepreneurial tribe, you’ll need to pay attention to whom you spend your time away from work like when you go out to eat or do fun activities. Because even though you (sort of) don’t have a choice who works with you when you’re at a job site, you do have a choice whom you spend time with after work, so choose wisely.
So what part should friends play throughout your adult life?
I’ve heard someone say once that if you have three people in your life consider a true friend, then you’re doing good.
Your friends influence you, especially how you earn and spend money.
If you’re hoping to become a small business owner, you need to budget and not spend money your money on stupid shit wantonly, and if you are in your 20s and you realize that your job is paying you more than enough money, that’s great.
At the same time, if you want to get ahead, you usually have to go outside your comfort zone, which means meeting new people and getting involved in new ventures or activities. No matter what, it’s good to expand your tribe and build relationships with different people so you can get help with whatever comes up. Because if you notice that the top people in the company where you work aren’t making enough money—enough to satisfy you at least—then it’s time to move on and say good-bye to that work situation and (to an extent) good-bye to those friends.
Just like you outgrew your clothes as a kid, you can also outgrow your friends as you age and mature.
And yet, some people are still hanging out with their same friends from high school. Somewhere along the way, they got comfortable and stopped progressing. Sometimes these people moved on from high school only to get stuck hanging out with their college friends, spending every weekend going out partying and talking about the good ole days back at school attending college games.
Most of us have felt peer pressure from our partying friends—if we have them—to go out partying and celebrating every weekend. But you don’t need to feel obligated to try and keep up. While it’s easy to be scared that your friends will stop liking you and you won’t be accepted anymore if you keep telling them no, the reality is that you have nothing to fear.
Nowadays, if I want to hang out with someone I reach out to them because I’ve said no enough times that my good time friends have all given up asking me to go hang with them.
Once you decide that you want to be successful more than you want to go out partying with your friends, that’s where true freedom lies, and you know then that you’re getting somewhere in life.
For me, staying home and spending less has helped me stay out of corporate America: if I had partied and spent my money I would have run out of money and would have had to back and get a run-of-the-mill job rather than continue to be my own boss.
Your Guide,
Joshua Krafchick, “Unconventional Money Guy”
Additional Blogs about Relationships
- Does Marriage Affect Your Money?
- See Immediate Gains with This Investment.
- Benefits of Being Single.
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