Jim Rohn once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with”. If this is true, which five people would you like to spend your time with?
I had never heard of Jim Rohn before so I googled him and it turns out that he mentored Tony Robbins, who is one of the best paid motivational speakers here in the U.S. Having found this out makes me take this quote with a huge grain of salt. I also found out that Rohn had in turn been mentored by a gentleman named Shoaff. Essentially these men are excellent salespeople with an incredible amount of charisma, gifted in convincing people that their message is the one that will bring fortune to everyone if only you buy their books and tapes and practice what they preach.
That being said, I am turning over the quote in my head and it seems to me that if you are the average sum of the parts of the people that you spend time with, then you really need to decide what type of person that you want to be so that you can go out and find those five people who have the necessary characteristics that you want to rub off on you and influence you.
I would need to spend time with someone who has ambition and self-confidence because I do often need a kick in the pants to get me going when left to my own devices.
I am not entirely sure that this quote really applies beyond the superficial. I know that in my own experience, I have my own role models, my dear cousin over in France, and as much as I admire her and would love to be like her in a perfect universe, it isn't me in the final analysis. I am too much my father's daughter which I am glad for because it is who I am.
Instead of worrying about financial success as these men like Rohn and Robbins do by emulating other people, I would rather be satisfied with my own productivity and my own way of getting to whatever success means for me and to me.
Love your take on this but I do think my son said it better. “Choose your friends wisely. Make sure where they are, is where you want to be; because they will take you to where they are.”
Your son did say it better!:) That applies to strangers as well, just because you might be lost, don’t just follow people in a crowd, you don’t know where they are headed. I had to explain that to my mother-in-law several times.