No, I’m not talking about copywriting.
My copywriting skills deserve some polishing, I admit – but the wisdom I give out is spot on, no questions about that.
I’m not referring to my worldview or work ethic either.
Some folks out there who can’t sit down for five minutes straight without looking at their phones, watching booty or stupid shiet on tiktok or Insta might disagree with me on this one, but I know I’m 100% right.
There’s just no comparison between working my äss off daily and only working when I “have the inspiration” to work.
As you can see, a four-hour workweek ain’t my thing.
Where am I trying to get to, then?
If you follow my stuff either on my website at theprybar.com or on my LinkedIn profile, you might’ve encountered some wild posts running amok where I say Jim Rohn’s iconic “You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with” line.
Turns out that that’s the wrong approach.
You’re the average not just of the five people you spend the most time with, but also the people your five closest friends spend their time with, and the people your friends’ friends spend the most time with.
Sounds insane and confusing, I know.
But turns out it’s true.
According to an article I’ve read on Medium.com by David Burkus, and it went along these lines:
“According to their results, if a friend of yours becomes obese, you yourself are 45 percent more likely than chance to gain weight over the next two to four years. More surprisingly, however, Christakis and Fowler found that if a friend of your friend becomes obese, your likelihood of gaining weight increases by about 20 percent — even if you don’t know that friend of a friend. The effect continues one more person out. If a friend of the friend of your friend develops obesity, you are still 10 percent more likely than random chance to gain weight as well.”
He continues by showing other examples of this effect in fields such as smoking and happiness, but the results are mostly the same.
It seems logical though when you think about it.
If we can apply the saying “you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with”, then why can’t we attribute it to our friends as well?
They are the average of the five people they spend the most time with, after all, no?
And what if you have a different friend circle?
What if you’re only one of the five people they spend the most time with?
Let me give you an example:
You work out every single day for one hour a day (entirely possible and you should do it) and try to convince your friend to come with you. Your four other closest friends go to the gym too.
You bring him with you for a week, but then he decides that he doesn’t want to “torture” himself and that the gym is consuming his time too much.
As a responsible adult, you ask yourself, “What did I do wrong?”
You search for the answer in the deepest recesses of your mind, and painful questions come up, such as “Did I put the bar so high he couldn’t jump over it?” or “Was I too harsh to him?” or “Did he not like the gym I invited him to?”…
“I tried doing my best by showing him an example and thought that my discipline and commitment would rub off on him, but I didn’t succeed.”
As you think this line out loud, a familiar line pops into your head.
“You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with”.
AHA!
“I’m only one of those five people. Let me look at his other friends.”
As you’re looking at their Twitter profiles, you see that they’re a bunch of obese, girly “men” who do nothing but watch Netflix or play video games all day, all the while chugging six cans of G-Fuel a day because they have to perform well at their friggin’ Call of Duty matches.
Oh, they also have tweets where they say “Going to the gym is g@y”.
Now everything becomes clear.
Such is the power of your network.
Surround yourself with winners is true.
But let’s one up it and say: Surround yourself with winners who surround themselves with winners.
Speaking about winners, winners hardly make mistakes. But if they do, they learn the lesson quickly. But what if you didn’t make mistakes because you knew what dangers to look out for?
That’s where I can help you with my ebook.
Head to https://theprybar.com and get it for free.