Tom Peters said that "we become who we hang out with." (See slide 21...) He's right. If you want to fly, don't hang out with chickens, you know? It's the rare individual who improves her tennis game after consistently playing against those with skills less than hers. She doesn't have to try as hard to win. She gets soft. But pit her against someone who can serve aces to her, and her every skill is front and center. It has to be, or she has no prayer in the game. Who influences us most? Those near us, of course. We become who we hang around. There was a guy I worked with who told me that his sales manager told him to never hire a salesman who drove an old car and didn't want a new car. The great salesperson, he told me, is the one who wants more than what he has today. That new car payment gives him incentive to get out there every day. Troy Dunn wrote a book called "Young Bucks," which describes how to raise children who know how to create a profit. In the book, he has this passage: The greatest gift you can give to your child is the gift of want. He coaches us parents to ditch the allowance and teach our children to "learn to earn." He reasons that when they want something bad enough, and earning the money is the only way to achieve it, they'll figure out a way to make the money. That creates self-sufficiency, self-motivation. That child becomes confident in life. Isn't that what we all want?Who influences us to stretch ourselves into more than who we are today? I don't mean those who tell us who we ought to be. They might be right, but that's a realization we need to birth within ourselves. No, I mean those that we choose to be near to us who pull us more into knowing for ourselves who we want to be. They're unafraid to help stretch us. Now, think of this in terms of our co-workers, managers, and work environment. Some people live to shirk work as much as they can. Some people see their job as nothing more than a paycheck. Does the manager help the individual set stretchable goals? Does the work environment pull people into higher performance? Is the culture centered on nothing less than excellence? Truly - what is the purpose of work? A paycheck? A means (money) to an end (bills paid)? Or do we go further and stretch ourselves into making our work a life-altering experience? An opportunity to become more than we are today? Are we encouraging those around us to do the same? I'll give you one reason for work: to help the employer make a profit. Some people want "profit" to become a dity word. They want it to represent greed and selfishness and unfairness. Bullshit. Profit means that you can stay in your job longer. It mean that you might be able to get a raise. It means that people who are unemployed can enjoy work and the paycheck it brings. But what kills me is that profit-making is so far removed from the mind of so many employees. The good business culture should put it square in the middle of every activity and decision and make it so that everyone in the company can see the profit in any effort made. Something that the company is doing is not profitable? Why is it being done? Make profit the focus of your work. Encourage others to do the same. Hang around those who love and crave profit, and ditch those who disdain it. It's not just okay to want more - it's essential. You grow as a person in your skills when you do. | 
