Action Steps:

• In every facet of your life, surround yourself with those who inspire you to dream more, do more, and be more in life. World Champions in sports are only made when they have a great team of people around them: training partners, coaches, family, business leaders, etc. It takes an entire army to build a World Champion. The same goes for every other job. No one succeeds alone.
• You must have the right people around you because the wrong people will destroy everything.

How to Recognize the Wrong People Around You

• People who change their mind all the time are a bad influence. They are not steadfast. They say one thing one day and say another thing another day.
• Don’t let anyone around you show unfaithfulness when you need them. They are not friends then.
• When you have wise people around you, they are continually giving you good counsel and information. When you keep these good people around, they bring health to your life because they are always speaking positively to you.

How do you Find the Right People to Succeed?

When you see these things in people, don’t get near them:

• Never have anyone around you that has hate in his heart towards others. They cannot forgive or love somebody for what they did to them. They are poison. The right people love. People who hate become very bitter in life. They get confused and into a depressed spirit. **Have loving people around you.
• Never have anyone around you who is lazy. Make sure that you have a person who is a man of character and a man who works. He is someone who is always active and producing. He is always succeeding and always thriving.
• Have people around you who do not gossip.
• Have people of peace around you.
• **Surround yourself with people who are not given to alcohol. Drunkards can actually hurt your future. Because they lose their ability to communicate and they don’t know what they are saying, and after they are drunk, they don’t remember what they said.
• Make no friendship with an angry man.
• Make sure that you surround yourself with faithful people. “Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joint.”
• “He that blesses his friend with a loud voice, rising early in the morning shall be counted a curse to him.” This is one who praises you to gain from you. He is one who is always trying to use you. Sometimes he tells you how good you are, how marvelous you are so he can gain something from you. Don’t have anything to do with him.
• Have people around you who pour into you and who do not take away from you.
• We need humble people around us not arrogant, proud people.
• Never have anyone around you who is a thief or a taker. Always have givers around you.
• To succeed, you must be active.
• You must work hard and not just hope that it will happen by itself.
• Work is important because if you don’t work it won’t happen.
• Many people today count time instead of making time count. People who count time are no good. People who make time count are productive people. Work gives you much more than living. It gives you life.
• You always must work because “quitters never win, and winners never quit.”

Thomas Edison said, “You win by 2% inspiration and 98% perspiration.”

Tom Brady, quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers of the NFL, says the key to success is the “right time, right people around you, right place.”

Abraham Lincoln said, “Wounds equip you for leadership.” Because work is tough. It’s going to hurt. There is no such thing as a lazy person, just someone who is uninspired. Inspired people are not lazy.

A French artist Renoir was asked, “Why do you keep painting with arthritis?” He replied, “The pain will pass but the beauty will remain.”

African proverb – “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

James Malinchak, featured on the Hit TV show Secret Millionaire, says to avoid people who drain you of energy with their negative thinking or habits. He says it is important for your well-being to set time limits and boundaries with them. If you must work with them on the job, limit your interaction with them and always remain professional.

James calls people “Vampires” who have these characteristics: 1. Whiners 2. Complainers 3. Negative 4. Habitually late 5. Inappropriate humor 6. Unrealistic expectations 7. Humorless 8. Not detail oriented 9. Perfectionistic 10. Too assertive or aggressive 11. Submissive 12. Cold, unfeeling, cynical 13. Procrastinator 14. High maintenance.

• Be the kind of person or friend that you would like to have.
• “To have a friend, you must first be a friend.”