By Their Fruit They Will Be Known

Have you ever seen an apricot on an apple tree? Or a banana hanging from an orange tree? I can sit in my garage all day long, drink gasoline and make car noises, but that doesn’t make me a car. If it meows, it’s probably not an eagle. Most entrepreneurs are so focused on sales, profits, cash flow and time, that they don’t take the time to evaluate options and people objectively. The fact is, appearances are only appearances: smoke and mirrors. And the reason why we should be aware of who people really are, is that we must carefully choose who we spend our time with.

Bob Harrison teaches us that “Birds of the feather flock together, and that flock is going someplace.” Whom are you flocking with, and where is your flock headed? He says that if you want big fleas, you have to hang with the bog dogs. Are you hanging with big dogs – big thinkers, or with losers? Your circle of friends and associates will largely determine your future level of success. Therefore, you have to be very careful whom you mix with. You can’t judge a book by its cover; you have to read it in order to judge it accurately. The people you bump into in a McDonald’s are different from those you meet at the Hyatt. Where do you spend your time?

At a meeting of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum, I introduced two people and I was paid a commission of 25,000 shares in a company. Those people don’t spend a lot of time in MacDonald’s. Successful people don’t think in terms of shortage, scarcity and doubt; they believe in abundance and winning. They are optimistic. They take risks. They spend money. They don’t make weak excuses. We earn within 10% of the income of the people we spend the most time with. If someone tells you he is a top business consultant and you find out that he works part-time in a government job, guess what? He’s a loser. He’s a liar. He’s a liability. Dump him, bump him, and move on. We know that if we change our thoughts, we can change our world. Your thinking is determined largely by the people you socialize with.

Back to Bob Harrison. He says like attracts like. Georges hang around with Georges (a one-dollar bill) and Bens hang around with Bens ($100 bill) and buy Mercedes Benz’s! Whom are you spending time with and working with? Who belongs to your club? Abraham ($5) is a good guy, and Andrew ($20) is also a good guy, but if you’re serious about success, hang with Ben Franklin. Now George might impress you, but when you take him to the bank, he is only worth a dollar. Spending time with Ben Franklin time is worth a hundred times more than spending time with George Washington! Classify your friends and decide if you want to share their future or create you own.

Finally, a good way to find out that people really are is to find out what books they read. When you read a book by Churchill, you are reading his words in your mind. In reality, you are thinking his thoughts! If you think the thoughts of Winston Churchill, you will get the same kind of results that he got! Isn’t that exciting? When you know what books people read, you know a lot about them. You cannot change people, so don’t try; move on to winners. When you want apples, make sure you’re climbing a ladder that is leaning on an apple tree. Join the winners of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum: www.dollarmakers.com

Robin J. Elliott.