You are always the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
I’m sure you’ve heard it before…
What’s now become an oft-repeated fact, courtesy of the late motivational speaker Jim Rohn, is still relevant for us today and starts to take shape when we consider our professional networks.
Stick with me here.
If we are who we spend time with than we need to spend time with people who make us feel alive, support us and yes, challenge us too.
That’s where networking and connecting with our peers comes in. Most of us find it hard to network or to get to know people in our industry. Obligations run the gamut: work, kids, higher education – doing the job of four employees! And those are all legitimate, but if we miss the opportunity to connect with our peers, we are missing an opportunity to be better in business. Our goal should be long-term growth and sustainability, not simply keeping the ship from sinking every day.
So that’s why peer-to-peer networking is important. Now, let me tell you how to do it: make it manageable for you. Set reasonable goals that fit your schedule. For example, you might say, “I want to go to two networking events per month” or “I want to join a peer to peer advisory group” or “I want to have coffee with one of my counterparts this week.”
And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in decades of business and in decades of life for that matter, it’s this: if you don’t set a goal you will never achieve it.
When you achieve your goal – and get to coffee or to a peer advisory group – you’ll get encouragement back. You’ll get someone who holds up a mirror and isn’t tempted to be a yes man. You’ll get ideas and energy from your peers and the feeling that you’re not alone. That’s really important when you own a small business.
In the end, take care of you and the business will thrive.
By Blair Koch
