The-Slight-Edge

152 The Slight Edge
eventually looks to him as a leader. If he is a worthy leader long enough, soon
other team members are modeling him. When you watch great quarterbacks play
like Joe Montana or Peyton Manning, it is very clear that they have been leaders
of their team long enough that they have earned the right to be modeled after and
are seen as the coaches on the field.
The Law of Associations
Do you remember a comment I made about income, way back in the very
beginning of this book? While I was sitting in the Phoenix airport thinking about
my new friend, the shoeshine woman, I mused over this thought:
Your income tends to equal the average of the incomes of your five best friends.
This principle does not apply solely to your finances: it operates in every
aspect of your life.
Your level of health will tend to be about the average level of health of your
five best friends. Your personal development will be at about the average level
of personal development of your five best friends. Your relationships, financial
health, attitudes, level of success in your career, and everything else about your
life will tend to be very close to the average level of each of these conditions in
your five closest friends and associates.
We all understand this principle instinctively; our language is shot through
with idioms that reflect it:
You’re known by the company you keep.
Show me where you fish and I’ll show you what you catch.
Birds of a feather flock together.
You are the combined average of the five people you
associate with most—including the way you walk, talk,
act, think and dress. Your income, your accomplishments,
even your values and philosophy will reflect them.
If the five people around you have negative philosophies, it’s virtually
impossible for you to have a positive philosophy. If the five people around you are
consistently complaining, living in the past, blaming others for their difficulties,
and thinking and acting in a generally negative way, then what are the odds of
you finding your way onto the success curve? Slim to none.
If you consistently associate with negative people, it’s highly unlikely you
will succeed at having and maintaining a positive approach to your life.
Become acutely aware of who you are modeling. This has everything to do
with your philosophy and your attitudes, which has more to do with your actions
and with what you’re actually doing and creating in your everyday life than any
other factor.