If all I ever do is promote myself then I will likely wind up surrounded by other people looking to promote themselves. You get what you give. If, on the other hand I set out to help others, then I wind up surrounded by people who are all motivated, like me to help others. Which do you think is more valuable to the world at large?

I’ve been talking a lot lately about surroundings, specifically whom I’m surrounding myself with. It’s important that I surround myself only with positive people. People who want to make a difference. People, who instead of complaining are looking for a solution. How do I go about creating and building this network of people? By using all of the things we’ve been talking about. Look and listen. Pay attention. Notice how people talk and what they are talking about. Are they dramatic or matter of fact? Are they promoting people or are the constantly warning you about people, or even worse, putting others down? There’s another important point here. When I go out I should not go out selfishly seeking people who can get me what I want. Instead I should go out looking to find people that I can help to get what they want. If you believe as I do in the principle of “you get what you give” then you can see very clearly where this path leads. What also happens when I do this is I find a wider variety of people that I begin to add into my network of family, friends, and colleagues. This applies in all areas of my life – not just business. With this wide variety of people at my disposal I am able to help more people because I know more people who have a varied set of skills among them. If I only search for people who have what I need, I end up with a small base of skills tied into my needs – a selfish approach. If I build a network of people based instead on what I can provide both from my own skill set as well as from my network, my network expands and I become more valuable to others. Now I wind up having an easier time finding the help that I need when I need it, in any area.

So I build my network with the goal in mind of helping others and what I get in return is a lot of people who can help me when I need it.

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