Choose Your Friends Wisely

 As an entrepreneur, it is important that the people in your life build you up and encourage you. Finding people who will help you achieve your goals will be a great strength. In A Field Guide for the Hero's Journey, Jeff Sandefer shares three essentials in determining what type of people you should seek out:

1--"Surround yourself with people of integrity. We all have lapses, but it's pretty easy to tell the difference between people who a trying to be good and people who aren't." Having a network of people which high moral character will remind you to act with integrity. As an entrepreneur, there will be many opportunities to blur the lines of honesty to get ahead--or avoid falling behind. It is critical to have people in you life who encourage you to do good and would never lead you to cheat.

2--"Surround yourself with people who are optimistic and kind." The most successful businesses are those that do good for others, that provide something that enriches other's lives. Goodness and kindness are essential traits in a successful entrepreneur.

3--"Surround yourself with people who are passionate," In his book Purify Richard Allred talks about how passionate people are always more successful. It doesn't matter what they're passionate in, people with passion have the drive to accomplish things when life gets tough. Being around others with passion will inspire me to keep working at the things I love--even if I forget how much I love them when life gets tough.

We become like the people we spend the most time with. It is essential to seek out people who will help us develop and maintain our strength and character. We need people in our lives who will remind us to do the right thing--people who aren't afraid to tell us when we're making a bad decision. We need friends who care more about our success that our opinion of them. As Jeff Sandefer says, "Do your friends complement you, or merely compliment you."