Environment

I am currently in the process of reading a book titled "The Law of Success" by a man named Napoleon Hill.  Hill was an advisor to two U.S. Presidents, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt.  The fundamental theory behind "The Law of Success" was just what the title says, that success does not involve luck.  There are a set of "rules" or at least common characteristics that lead to success.  Before putting together his book, Hill interviewed some of the mort powerful and influential people of that time, including, but not limited to: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, John Rockefeller, Charles Schwab, and Theodore Roosevelt.

Although I am not very far into the book (about 150 pages into a 1000+ page "lesson plan"), there are two distinct ideas that I have taken from the book so far. 

The first is that we need to be sure of what our goals are.  Allow me to rephrase that.  We must be sure of what our ULTIMATE goals are.  Mr. Hill calls it a "definite chief aim".  The reason people often fail is because they trade what they want most for what they want at the moment.  Granted, in any journey, there will be detours, obstacles, and roadblocks, but if you set your compass north, you will always find a way around those obstacles and stay in a positive direction.  These roadblocks may slow your journey and even take you places that you didn't expect to go, but as long as you know where your ultimate direction is, you will stay on track.

The second is to surround yourself with the right people; to place yourself in the right environment.  This is where the saying "birds of a feather flock together" came from.  It is no coincidence that the people in the above list knew eachother personally.  They were not rivals, as they were each titans in their own distinct industry, so they could feed off eachother's successes, and learn from their setbacks.

These two "lessons" tie in together when it comes to placing yourself in the right environment.  It is important to have people around you with similar goals as you.  However, in order to actually do this, you have to know what your ultimate goals are.  As it turns out, my ultimate goal is to become a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, so I am lucky to be in an environment with similar minded individuals.

Everything in your environment is contagious.  I am not talking about actual diseases; I am talking about characteristics.  Courage and enthusiasm (and the lack of) are two prime examples.  Both flow from top to bottom.  When going through hardships, when you are exhausted, or feeling unmotivated, it is human nature to look up.  You look to the people who have been there longer than you.  This is meant to be a message to both leaders and followers.  To the followers, when you are training hard and are feeling exhausted, so are your leaders.  Look at them.  How are they handling it?  Leaders are not immune to fatigue, hardship, and lack of motivation, it is how they handle it that makes them leaders.  Leaders keep it to themselves because they know that there are alot of eyes on them, and how they respond to adversity will influence those that look up to them.  To the leaders, you are being watched, so set a positive example.  Work twice as hard as the followers, and do it cheerfully.  Everything you say and do has a ripple effect among those around you.

I am going to close this up with a "joke" summarizing the leader/follower relationship.

There was a navy crew on a ship at sea.  The liutenant warned the captain that a dozen enemy ships had come over the horizon and combat was imminent.  The captain calmly said to his liutenant "go get my red shirt".  His thinking was that if he were wounded in battle, the red shirt would keep his crew from seeing him bleeding, and as long as he was still fighting strong, they would assume he is still unscathed and also continue to fight.  His liutenant returned with the red shirt and a new warning that another dozen ships had appeared on the horizon.  The captain replied: "go get my brown pants".