Squad Goals

This essay was written for the Makers of Sport® newsletter in May 2016. Monday Musings and Weekend Reads were the written editions of the newsletter that accompanied the podcast; the archived email is on Mailchimp. The newsletter's links and announcements are trimmed here.

Who is your squad? Your "day ones" so to speak. You might say your family, your spouse, a girlfriend, a boyfriend, teammates, fraternity brothers, sorority sisters, close colleagues or your best friends—typically those that support you the most and love you no matter what you do in life. The people that were there before the success. The ones that see the grind and the struggle.

These people are vital for balance in life and career, but sometimes, unless they have experienced the struggle themselves, may not always understand you or best to offer you feedback on your dreams.

Jim Rohn, successful entrepreneur, businessman and author, whom I also referenced in last week's Weekend Reads, is quoted saying "you are the average of the five people you spend time with most." This quote plays into the effective sales tactic, the law of averages; which states that if you want to increase your sales, you have to double or triple your sales calls and/or presentations.

This is probably why extremely successful people hang out with extremely successful people. Why do renown professionals like Seth Godin, Gary Vaynerchuck and Malcolm Gladwell turn down most speaking engagements except for ones where other famous entrepreneurs or personalities are at? Because they likely want to absorb some of the vibe, conversation and the osmosis that happens at an event with high-level folks.

“You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” — Jim Rohn

To really challenge yourself and your growth as a professional, you need to find time to be around folks that are smarter than you, more talented than you, and better than you at what you do or want to do.

Being the athletic superstar at a small-town high school is one thing, but if you're lucky, you move up to to a college where everyone was the superstar in their high school. This is where the real test is. Where the real champions are made. Where the creme rises to the top.

Some folks are too content being pat on the back in their day jobs, or being praised by how talented they are by their peers. We've all seen the folks trying out for American Idol who are absolutely horrible singers, but their mommy or their friends have been telling them are great for their entire lives. What happens when they get on the big stage? They fail, miserably. And because their entire identity is built into this false presumption that they are good at singing, they are lost.

If you truly want to get better, change your squad up. Those old college friends that live for the 9–5 and hit the lake on the weekends, ditch them (this is a metaphor of course, I'm not saying permanently ditch good friends for the sake of your career or to never have any fun, but don't spend as much time with the crew that isn't motivated to grow and only lives for the weekends as you do with motivated and talented individuals).

A-players want to work with other A-players. To be an A-player, you need to be around A-players and soak up their knowledge, constructive criticism and learn from their failures.

Who do you spend your time with most? Are they challenging you? If not, you may want to switch things up a bit. I offer some tips on cultivating relationships in a previous Halftime.

As always, have a great week, y'all.

Cheers,

Adam