You are who you are by virtue of the company you keep. — TB Joshua
Be one hundred percent selective
Build an extensive network of resourceful people and surround yourself with them. We are all naturally social creatures and the need to belong and be recognized is a basic human need. Identify a professional and personal brand target audience including these three groups of people:
- The people that pay you.
- The person that influences you and pays you.
- Your supporters.
Know who they are. Build strong and sustainable relationships with them. Utilize your personal brand to attract them to share your network. Prepare incentives for them; their presence should help to reinforce your personal brand message.
When it comes to defining your associates, peers, and other recognitions it becomes rather imperative that you be over-fastidious. Your network will determine your net worth to a much larger extent. Your associates and collaborations can single-handedly either drown you or lift you to the highest peak you ever imagined.
One of the most popular sayings in this context is, “you are the average of the closest five people you hang out with”. Never mind the exception, although. So by that definition when you hang out with people who often smoke, drink, and party every day, usually within the walls of nightclubs and bars, you are more likely to become like one of them similarly as birds of a feather flock together.
Our ‘hang out squad’ does play a crucial role in determining your success rate. It is often said that if you want to reach someplace where you never went before, better seek someone who has been there already. So if you want to be successful and attain massive wealth, make friends with rich and successful people.
NEVER EVER FOLLOW THE ADVICE OF A WRONG PERSON
One of the greatest blunders that most of business owners do is to follow the ill advice from an amateur. It’s like a man weighing 250 pounds telling Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter who is the fastest man ever timed, how to prepare for Rio Olympics. Don’t get me wrong but unless your dad has a successful business created by himself, he is not the one you should be taking advice from regarding your business decisions and business strategies. Their personal care and affection for you must not be confused with anything else.
Also, as a business owner, you need to understand that depending way too much on your employees will increase their value in their perception and it will create a problem for you only. See, asking your employees again and again about solutions degrades your credibility. It is one way of saying, “I am sorry but I can’t handle this business on my own, you might as well try to take it from me.” You definitely don’t want that.
As you grow, it is advisable for you to conduct workshops and seminars where all your staff can gather around and with help of a disciplined brainstorming session you can seek their suggestions and ideas, but at the same time, you will have to maintain your own integrity because you need to show your leadership.
Never undermine a business coach
If you think you have the potential to achieve more in business and are unable to perform, that can be a result of the missing ingredient. Well, such cases are common and you are not alone. That missing ingredient is a business coach.
A business coach not only keeps you accountable for your part of the job but he or she will keep a regular and round-the-clock check on your progress. A business coach is someone who will make you grind for your betterment. A coach or mentor should be confident enough to drive the results.
Initially, you might be skeptical about a coach’s skills (it’s quite natural) but never undermine their expertise in the long run, for they are capable of seeing things you did not even think of and way before it happens. They can produce massive results for you. You will often find them questioning and stating the following:
“Hey, weren’t you supposed to finish this project by the end of this week?”Your reply might be “Uh… Yeah… but I had to do some other work this weekend (a party?)”. A normal person might tag along with you to the party, but not your coach. Not only will he motivate you to accomplish the target but also be there to guide you whenever you are in dire need of him. So make sure that whoever is your business coach, is 100 percent confident that he will boost your business and increase your profit.
Therefore it’s recommendable for you to bring in someone credible to your business that will not only guide you through achieving your goals but also help you with securing funding from financial institutions and enable you to present your numbers carefully.
Business coaches can help you a great deal and produce massive wealth. They are the ones you should keep in touch with. But yes, they should be worth your money. They should work for your interest.
Don’t pick random business partners
One of the significantly ignorant reasons for the downfall of a billion-dollar empire is bad partnerships. A partner with evil intentions to engulf your entire business can tear apart your years of hard work. So what I suggest is when you enter into a partnership with someone, run a deep and thorough scan on their past records because that will tell you how efficient they are.
Another significant way to structure your partnership is by weighing the strengths and distributing work based on skillset, for example, if you’re good at sales and your partner is magnificent with numbers, you will be the one to supervise marketing and he will manage the accounts. Categorization of strengths and weaknesses is equally important.
Learn about your potential new partner’s methods of generating results in the long term. Also, check if they have any effective time resources to produce gains for both of you and whether or not they have any distractions that might hamper the returns. Your business development and profit generated from the venture will be determined by the amount of time, capital, and resources they are prepared to put in.
Every partnership has any of the three players – Platinum, Silver, and Copper. You’ll have to understand that things will be different when you partner up with a Platinum player, Silver player, and Copper player respectively. Who are Platinum players, Silver players, and Copper players? Let me walk you through it.
Well, I’ve categorized them as follows:
Platinum players: In a partnership, Platinum players are those, who are dedicated to driving the result, they see nothing but progress, they want nothing but gains and they do nothing but hard and smart work. They are goal-oriented and when partnering with a Platinum player, those are qualities you should be looking for in them. They’re adverse at failing because they always want to win, they can die to win.
Silver players: Talking about Silver players, we comprehend that they have amazing sets of skills, and their business strategies are substantial and successful ones. The only setback to their efficiency is that they don’t bring an equivalent amount of energy to the table and might not bring as successful resources as you bring, but their steady game will help you in the long run with business development and profit maximization. However, if you’re the Platinum player in the partnership then make sure you have more shares in equities and you must be treated with a little more respect.
Copper players: The only problem with Copper players is that they have problems for every solution and they lack both determination and motivation.
A pro tip – NEVER PARTNER WITH COPPER PLAYERS! OR WORSE, DON’T BE THE COPPER PLAYERS IN ANY PARTNERSHIP!
A partner is someone with whom not only you share the profits of your business but in many ways, they are the ones driving it for you. So if you are confused as to how to determine the right partner, just scan and thoroughly examine their past records, for a thorough background check will reveal everything there is to know.
When looking for a great partner, someone with whom you want fruitful results in business and run successful ventures, remember “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”. Platinum players will handle pressure with utmost calm and they will give their best no matter what.
Silver and Copper players might crack up wide open during intense pressures. Another significant indicator is loyalty, however, the problem with loyalty is that when people are with you they are loyal but often the situation comes where they have to choose and they choose to betray you. Take it from someone who knows. Consider the loyalty part pretty seriously.
Here are a few signs to ensure whether or not the person is loyal: if they respect their previous partner and were punctual and focused and no one had any bad words for them, they are loyal according to me. Now, this is important because if you plan to partner with a platinum player and they left their previous partner in a pathetic condition and left the venture just because you offered them better, it is just a matter of time that they apply the same trick to you. So loyalty is a must if you want to see positive results in your business!
When you’re friends with someone or even associated with them, make sure they are motivating you to strive for betterment and not the other way round.
You don’t have to choose the richest person on this planet to make friends with, for it is not their money but the attitude of those successful folks you need to learn to implement. Don’t get me wrong but often the notion of associating with the wealthy and extremely influential people sounds either elitist or discriminatory against the poor and middle class. On the contrary, it is quite opposite.
Your contact should be with those who are willing to break their backs for your success and vice versa, but at the same time, can you count on them to push the wheelchair after you. If so, make friends with them and try to instill their good habits.
It’s nice to say that everyone, irrespective of their social and financial status, has access to all the good and joyful things in life. It’s also naïve and untrue. Right or wrong, wealth offers privileges, and one of the most fundamental ways to generate massive wealth is to get around rich people and watch how they think. It’s an eye-opening experience.