Editor’s note: This article was first published in August 2010. Its example of a fixed-term deposit paying 4.10% APR reflects Spanish interest rates around 2010.
As we’ve discussed on a few occasions, the success of any entrepreneur is tied to the quality of the people they surround themselves with. Just imagine you had several friends or acquaintances who were investors and who trusted you. When it came time to launch a business idea, they would be the first to finance your project, in exchange for a return on the money they invested.
If your circle of friends included several business owners, you would undoubtedly learn far more about business than at university, because they are what you want to be. We know it isn’t easy to count among our friends people who are, so to speak, well-off and experienced in business, since that circle tends to be reserved for a particular socio-cultural group.
There’s a saying often used in psychology: “you are what you surround yourself with.” And it isn’t far off the mark: if you grow up surrounded by crime, the odds of ending up that way are higher. If you surround yourself with drug addicts and spend most of your time with them, it’s only a matter of time before you try those “pleasures” yourself. So, conversely, if you surround yourself with successful people, some of that success should rub off on you.
At some point in life, we have to be willing to steer ourselves onto the right path. Nobody forces us to stay in certain circles. We can’t choose our parents or where we’re born, but we can choose where we want to spend our lives, and our friends are undoubtedly our own choice.
See also: 10 choices you need to make today to succeed tomorrow
The difficulty in getting into circles like these is simply a matter of what each side brings to the table. Unconsciously, they think you have nothing to offer them in business, because you’re not at their level. Sometimes they’ve already been burned by people who latch on to them just to borrow money or get some kind of financial help.
If our advice is to surround yourself with quality people in order to succeed, remember that this is the same advice they have followed, so if you lack “quality”, you’ll find it hard to get in.
That said, people like this like ambitious people. Other people sometimes mistake ambition for a bad trait. But this particular group loves ambitious people, as long as they’re honest and can’t be bought.
I know the story of a young man who became friends with a retired businessman who had saved a large fortune of several million euros. The old businessman was stingy and distrustful, even of the financial advisors he’d had at his own companies.
The young man was ambitious and had projects in mind, and he made the old businessman a proposal. Essentially, he proposed that the businessman lend him 1 million euros, and after a year he would pay back the million plus €20,000, all of it put down in writing in a kind of contract between the two of them.
The old businessman understood the young man’s strategy, knowing it was a way of helping him and making a profit. He hadn’t asked him for money; he had offered him a way to make money. The young man’s idea was to put that money in a fixed-term deposit that had been offered to him at 4.10% APR, roughly 4% nominal interest. That meant that after 12 months, the million euros would earn approximately €40,000, half of which he would give to the old businessman.
Obviously, the old businessman could have earned the €40,000 on his own, without having to share the interest on his money, but he did it simply to help a friend he trusted.
During those 12 months, the old businessman helped the young man spot business opportunities and even made him a partner in some other ventures. Today he is a major Spanish businessman who creates thousands of jobs.
Would he have achieved this without his wealthy businessman friend? Probably yes, because when someone fights for their dream with all their energy, they end up reaching their goal. But having this friend obviously made the process easier.
What I mean by this example is that if you plan to do business, you should find ways to build relationships with business people, and if you want to invest, you’ll need a few investors in your circle of friends.
You should ask yourself what the people you spend your days with contribute to achieving your dreams, because very often our own circle of friends does nothing but hold our dreams back.
That said, this doesn’t mean you should drop your childhood friends, because it’s also important not to forget your roots. If you’re clear about where you come from, you’ll always be clearer about where you want to go.
I’d like you to read our next article, where we talk about the only secrets there are to achieving financial freedom or getting rich.
Further reading
- The only secrets to becoming a millionaire
- How to be a successful businessperson, part 1
- How to become an investor, part 1
- The entrepreneur’s mindset
- Steve Jobs’s early days
Featured image: Harris & Ewing, photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
