PEOPLE
YOU ARE WHO YOU
SURROUND YOURSELF WITH
BY GREG EISEN, CERTIFIED PETRA COACH
JIM ROHN, renowned businessman and
personal development guru, once said,
“You are the average of the five people you
spend the most time with, and that means
everyone in your life counts.” As I travel
across the country coaching leaders and
organizations, I often refer to this quote.
What I don’t hear enough lately, however,
is the idea that who you surround yourself
with is who you’ll become.
I grew up with a passion for basketball.
No, I wasn’t blessed with tremendous
height or quickness, but I had the work
ethic and enough athleticism to become a
pretty decent player. As a 15-year-old kid,
I would scour the playgrounds in my city
to play with and against the best players I
could find. I surrounded myself with older,
better players, and as a result, I became
better—enough to go on to play college
basketball for four years at Binghamton
University.
As I ventured into the business world,
my father told me a story about Howard
B. Johnson, the son of Howard D. Johnson,
founder of the hotel and restaurant chain.
In 1965, total sales at Howard Johnson’s
astoundingly exceeded the sales of
McDonald’s, Burger King, and Kentucky
Fried Chicken—combined. By 1979,
Howard Johnson’s had become the largest
hospitality company in America, with more
than 1,000 restaurants and 500 motor
lodges. The story goes, Howard B. Johnson
was speaking at a franchise convention
in the 1970s and was asked what he
considered the single biggest contributing
factor to his success. He went on to reply,
“I reckon I was smart enough to hire people
smarter than me.”
I never forgot that message and strived
to apply the same notion to my business
career. At 25, I decided to form an advisory
board for my small photography business.
I made a list of the most successful
people I could think of who were somehow
connected to my network, called them
up, and asked them to participate on the
board. To my pleasant surprise, many
said yes. Through this initiative, brilliant
folks like John Katzman, founder of
The Princeton Review; Leslie Charm,
professor at Babson, famed college for
entrepreneurship; and others helped
shape my company’s direction at a very
young age.
Currently, I continue to follow this belief
system. But even if this is a new concept
to you, there are plenty of ways you can
implement it in your own life and business
starting today:
• Accountability Groups – You are
exponentially more likely to achieve
the things you set out to do once you
have told them, out loud, to another
person. Find a group of individuals
who are also setting goals, both
personal and professional, and hold
one another to task for the things
you say you want to accomplish. My
12
accountability group talks every
Friday at 8 a.m. for 30 minutes—a
small time commitment that
produces immeasurable results.
• Peer-to-Peer Networks – In every
region, there are ample groups for
business leaders and entrepreneurs
to unite and grow. Entrepreneurs’
Organization (EO) has more than
167 chapters, Young Presidents’
Organization (YPO) has over 250,
Vistage chapters reach over 20
countries, and those are just a
few examples. In my experience,
being part of EO for over 20 years
has given me the opportunity to
consistently learn from the best and
brightest in my community.
• Your Colleagues – Think about
it: we spend more time on a daily
basis with the people we work
with than with our own families.
It’s important that these people
are positively impacting and
encouraging us to become our best
selves. For me, joining Petra Coach
was an extremely thoughtful choice,
finding what I strongly believe to be
the absolute best in the coaching
business.
Many of us put aside the time for setting
personal and business goals, whether
working with a coach or not. But how often
have you taken the time to truly reflect on
who you’re spending your time with?