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Losing friends and family for your pursuit.

Written by: Samantha Cook

Article Overview: There is something that has always bothered me and it was the constant reminder that you will have to change your friends if you want to succeed.

Losing friends and family for your pursuit.

I have been a network marketing and other work from home forums for almost a year now. There is something that has always bothered me and it was the constant reminder that you will have to change your friends if you want to succeed.

There are many articles about who you associate yourself with is going to be who you are. Studies have shown that the people who associate themselves with people who make $30k/ year will make $30k/ year.

This is a recurring theme that has bothered me from day one. I have always been the friend that is supportive, listening and helpful. In fact, it was one of the main causes of leaving my 80-hour a week job because I did not have time for my friends/family or myself.

I felt I was going to be betraying them, essentially “firing them” from being my friend because they do not have the same aspirations as I do. Then today, it hit me! Since when have I let anyone tell me whom I can or cannot associate myself?

I had a paradigm shift and realized that I was taking this information the wrong way. Just because there are studies that state I need to associate myself with millionaires if I was to become a millionaire. It does not mean that I need to cut off ties from my friends who are not millionaires; I merely need to add to my friends through association of those with the same aspirations.

I did not need to only associate myself with only HR Directors to become an HR Director; I did it through my own power of self and determination to follow that dream.

This maybe a small change in thought process, but for me it was a major release on a mental hold back for my pursuit of happiness.

On another note, I am a good friend and thus if I have a friend (or family) who is not supporting my cause…I distance myself from negativity. Something I have done all of my life anyway.

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Article Tags: aspirations, constant reminder, friends family, good friend, home forums, hr director, hr directors, job, millionaire, millionaires, network marketing, paradigm shift, pursuit of happiness, span style, style font, thought process, ties, wrong way
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Cash up front ... or Royalties? - The fees are certainly high for law services, and the knowledge they provide is critical. A lack of legality in an inventor's process, which is best identified by a lawyer, trumps all other opinions(friends, family, economic development, engineering) instantly. Re-Read the reasoning under #2. and, to explain more: Family time is generally more valuable than your friend time. Your family can be, and has more of a responsibility to be candid than the majority of your friends. Your family should have an excellent understanding of your financial capabilities. Your friends probably don't. Example: You spend what could have been your kid's college fund on an invention. you just took a situation with a high chance of success (investing in your kid's education) down to a 1 in 1000 chance of success. And, your invention will most likely be worth less over time than the wealth creation that results from the investment in your kid's education. If you family says that you don't have the time or money to do an invention, that should carry a completely different weight than any recommendations of your friends. Harming the mental and financial stability of your family as a result of your devotion to your invention is a different situation than sacrificing time with your friends. Also, the feeling of responsibility from the two groups is completely different. For this reasons I separate family and friends into two different weights for their advice. SUMMARY: --The opinion of many others is extremely important, but the risk of doing something illegal trumps all other risks. Thus, my statement that of the lawyer gets #1 weight. --Your family gets #2. --Your friends have a minimal responsibility to you. they get #5.
Re: How much time to you take off? - Hi Evan, Vacations! I love them and wish I could take such breaks more often. I normally take a vacation of 15 days and this is how I utilize these days - Vacations give you time to enjoy the world with your family and friends. I generally spend the first week by really freaking out with my family and friends. During this there is no cell phone or laptop. Its just me with family and friends. Then there is the next week. This week I spend time analyzing the business that has happened during the past year and I try to figure out i. why I lost a deal ii. how to increase the success ratio iii. where I went wrong and stuff like these. This is the time I spend to look at my business with a third man's perspective and also take the help of a few of my friends who are into psychology, accounts and analysis. This is how I spend my vacations.
facebook - On Facebook, Is it possible to ignore game notifications from friends on my wall? I love Facebook, but I use it only for close friends and family. While I'm happy to see what all my relatives are doing during the day, some of my friends and family play games, like Mafia Wars, Farmville, or Vampire Wars. Every time they do something in the game, it gets posted to my wall and clogs it with ugly graphics and pointless notifications. Is there a way to tell FB that I don't care about my friends' games?
Re: Second attempts at entrepreneurship - Great replies! As you can see, if all of those people had given up on the first try, we wouldn't have had a lot of great inventions. There are a lot of great websites that will help you stay motivated and have the endurance that it takes to be a successful person (both personally and financially). I DO understand not wanting to tell the family and friends. I was that way, too. Maybe you could focus more on other leads and then hit up the family and friends after you've had success elsewhere. Hang in there! Believe in yourself and your abilities!
Second attempts at entrepreneurship - If you failed once (or more times) at being an entrepreneur, should still you tell your family/friends about your second attempt? Or is an aspiring small business owner better off without the potential negative feedback from family/friends who may think he/she is the 9-5er who often cries "I can start my own business"?


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