Andy Schindling

Look around you. Think about your friends and who you surround yourself with. Are you surrounded by people of positive influence? Are these people adding value to your life? Can you turn to these people when you need honest opinions? Or have you surrounded yourself with people who just bring you comfort and who really don’t care if you see your dreams and goals come true?

In my short life thus far I would have to answer yes to ALL those questions, unfortunately. As a teenager and young adult I valued keeping old friendships alive more than making new friends, mainly because I was scared to surround myself with people who were not like me, which would leave me feeling uncomfortable. Its was to go through life and hangout with the same old friends you had from elementary, middle and high school because we had those great memories and conversations of “remember when we ……”. But the problem was I never really learn to break out and leave my bad habits, mistakes, and past behind me.

“Those who are the closest to you will ultimately determine your success.”

What I have found is that friendships, in my opinion, are the most valuable and important pieces of our lives. It’s hard to look around and find successful people – not determined by wealth and fame but determined by what they are doing for the world – who are surrounded by unsuccessful people. They generally find people with similar interest, goals, hobbies and that have the same drive and determination. Surrounding themselves with people that do not posses similar goals and desires could easily steer them off track and cause them to lose sight of their goals and aspirations.

Successful people surround themselves by successful people for two reasons; because iron sharpens iron and success breeds success. If you want to be successful and live a fruitful life you need to surround yourself with the people who you want to live like and people who can drop wisdom on you at any moment. By surrounding yourself by such individuals its only a matter of time that you will start to live like them. “If you want to be a millionaire you better start hanging around millionaires” was the best advice I ever received when in college. And its true. It’s hard to think like a millionaire if your not conversating with millionaires.

It is never to late to start making new friends and it can never be too soon to let go of friends who aren’t helping you get to where you want to be in life. 

So, to all the young athletes, if you want to be a college student athlete it’s time to hangout with successful college or former college athletes. To all aspiring entrepreneurs, it’s time to hang out with successful entrepreneurs. Today is the day to start putting a major emphasis on and valuing who you surround yourself with. Your future relies on it.

God Bless