Pay attention to your surroundings

In entrepreneurial life, or life in general, there are a lot of ways to become successful. You can make a lot of money, be the smartest individual in your workplace, or do a combination of anything in between. However, the common denominator to successful people is that they carefully choose the people they have close relationships with.

We've heard age-old adages such as, "if you want to be rich, befriend and study rich people." Ironically the same thing goes for success in life. Relationships that bring you down (or constantly discourage you) are going to steer the focus on success in another direction. And losing focus is the worst thing you can possibly do when on the road to success. When you lose focus...you crash.

The problem for a lot of entrepreneurs is that they tend to believe, they owe it to everyone else to  stay socially coherent.  In reality it's the other way around, they owe it to themselves to stay focused on the task at hand (whether that be to build a company or work towards financial independence). The relationships that center around a debt, are usually not the kind of relationships to continue when attempting to become successful. We've been there, done that, and even built a monument for it.  Unhealthy relationships will keep anyone's focus from the task at hand. And in doing so, prevents the ability to succeed among the fierce competition.

Our company was really built when I, Stephen Alred(founder/CEO), decided to take a full 3-months away from family and friends and work. Keeping my focus only on my company. Of course family understood what I was trying to do, but many of my closest friends didn't understand. They thought it was a waste of time and said it was "unhealthy", and rather I get out and have a great time with them. But, by surrounding myself with a lot of healthy relationships I was encouraged to build my dream, one stepping stone at a time. The reality is if I would've stuck with those that discouraged me, I would've never gotten where I am now. Not to say socializing is a bad thing, dreams just happen to come first. If you were to look at the friends who encouraged and the friends who laughed, you would see an interesting difference. Those that encouraged (great modelling career, fashion week; one of two American representatives for the Shagya breed worldwide; three have their own companies; one has a very lucrative corporate job), those that discouraged (work at a summer camp; trapped in a 9-5; can't decide on a career; unrealistic goals for the future).

Success is a very unforgiving entity. You focus, you see your dreams realized. You don't focus, you see those same dreams, dashed against the rocks. A key nominator of the focus equation is the quality of individuals you surround yourself with. Low quality people= low quality focus. High quality people=high quality focus.