When was the last time you took inventory of the people you know and associate with the most? Partners, business associates, other lawyers in your market or group you regularly speak with, or experts you hire to advise you.
Who influences you?
Maybe you’ve known them for years and rely on them daily. Or maybe you don’t know them personally but follow them on social, watch their channel, or read their posts.
Be careful. They could be your undoing.
They could be decent people. Well intentioned and mean you no harm. You might like and trust them without question. But if they have bad ideas and you listen to those ideas, they could lead you down the wrong path.
We’ve all seen law partnerships or business partnerships break up for this reason. Marriages and families, too. Someone followed someone’s advice or example and it destroyed what was once a good business or relationship.
It’s called “the law of association”. We become like the people we associate with most. Sometimes, that’s good. Sometimes it isn’t.
The message? We all have other people in our life who influence us and we need to spend as much time with the right ones. People who inspire us and set a good example for us. People who influence us in positive ways.
And avoid (or spend less time with) the ones who don’t.
No doubt you know this and agree with it. But it’s easy to forget something. It’s easy to forget that people change. Things happen. The people we know and are influenced by are themselves influenced by others.
Which is why we must regularly take inventory of the people in our life. We might like them and trust them, even love them, but people change and we can take nothing for granted.
Pay attention. Ask questions and listen to the answers. Watch what they do.
As someone famously said, “Trust, but verify.”
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