A small, quality-rich circle of A-Players will enhance your life like nothing else.
“The biggest cheat code in the world is associating yourself with winners.
The older I get, the more I understand how critically important environment, leaders, and mentors really are.
A small, but quality-rich circle of A-Players will enhance your life unlike anything else.”
-Ray Zingler on X
I don’t spend much time in inner cities.
They are about the last place I want to be.
However, I was in Philadelphia this weekend in a walkable area staying in a swanky hotel.
I’d walk down into the lobby and see the most uppity of uppity folks and then I’d walk out onto the city streets to a stark contrast.
Rampant homelessness.
People sleeping in the middle of busy sidewalks.
Disabled men and women, at times fully naked, trying to change into the only other set of clothes they had.
And mentally struggling, broken people outwardly expressing their frustrations via tantrums.
It was heartbreaking to see.
It’s not that I didn’t know these types of lifestyles existed, but living where I live and spend most of my time, you don’t see it every day.
While the solution for homelessness is certainly above my pay grade, it got me thinking about my own life and the things that are “normal” for me.
I was raised in a 2-parent household in an affluent area, with an abundance of high quality resources, programs, and opportunities.
I had great parents, teachers, and access to mentors.
This again was “normal” for me. It’s all I knew.
And then I thought the homeless people.
And while every situation is different and I recognize resources, geography, and many other uncontrollables can impact circumstances, most of them likely didn’t have any of what I, or even you probably had.
One A-Player in their life may have been able to make a difference. But they likely didn’t have them.
This made me self reflect on how truly important being around winners really is.
It’s something that many successful people take for granted without having the self awareness to recognize they likely are where they are because quality people led them there.
The message I have is simple:
Get around winners.
Do whatever you have to do.
Pay, fight, scratch, claw, work for free, do whatever you have to do, but get around high quality leaders, coaches, and mentors.
Even the smallest circle of A-Players, hell even one, can make all the difference in the world.
Never take for granted the critical importance of a quality environment.
Your lot in life largely depends on your environment and who influences you within it.
