Why You Need To Take A Friendventory

At this point, you have either jumped in with both feet into the entrepreneurial world. Or you’re hustling, cultivating your idea on the side. If you are going to be successful one day, there is one key ingredient you must use. Take a friendventory.

Now you’re probably thinking, friendventory?

A friendventory is taking a look at the current people, friends or family that you are spending the bulk of your time with. The people you are surrounded by on a daily or weekly basis.

This could be anything from spouses, in-laws, sisters, brothers, daughters, friends, co-workers, etc. You get the point.

Now if you are to be successful with this idea or project you are cultivating. The people you choose to be around on a regular basis is a key ingredient to success.

To give you a better idea, I wanted to share a short story of how I “became an entrepreneur”. Not just becoming an entrepreneur, but how I started to see real results for myself and the little adjustment I made.

It’s not a quick fix to success, so don’t get your hopes up. My real intentions with sharing my story is to let you know that time is precious, and you need to be spending it with the right people.

My story

It was a little over a year ago now and I was doing some consulting for a few businesses. I started to realize I really liked what I was doing. I was helping businesses grow through online and unconventional marketing techniques. It was fun.

The problem that I had was that I only had a few clients. Two to be exact. Nothing all that glamorous or anything to be celebrated. I was having trouble trying to find the willpower and strength to get more clients because I was getting bogged down with existing clients.

But it wasn’t until I found out my real problem that I started to see some real success. My biggest problem wasn’t getting more clients, or managing my time better. Although I could have easily done either/or a bit better.

The problem was that I was not surrounding myself with the right people.

Probably not what you thought it would be. But this was a blessing in disguise to me. I found myself accepting family dinners, going out with friends, and ultimately saying yes to things that I thought made me happy.

I was wrong. Because what made me happy was building my business into something I can be proud of one day. I was never going to get anywhere if I was to go out every weekend, or say yes to every engagement whether it was my best friend or my own mother.

What I learned

At this moment I realized I needed to start surrounding myself with people who thought like me and were doing similar things. No offense to everyone reading this in your fancy cushy corporate job, but you have no idea what it’s like to be an entrepreneur.

Someone working towards building their dream as an entrepreneur is so different than a job with set hours and a guaranteed paycheck. So that’s why I started to distance myself from people like this. Whether they were a close friend or family member.

I didn’t take them out of my life forever because that’s something no one should ever do. But what I did do, is look for new friends that were entrepreneurs themselves and who thought like me. Ultimately I wanted people around me who are similar minded that I could relate to. These are the people I wanted to surround myself with more.

Plain and simple. I will not become a better business person, or husband if I’m around people who complain, whine, and just ultimately hate the world for something. If you do any of these things, I frankly don’t really want to be around you.

I found when I was around people like this who whine and complain it didn’t give me the energy to want to build my dream. It made me question if I was doing the right thing. If this path I’m going down truly is right for me.

Taking my friendventory

Now when I took my friendventory and spent less time with lazy people that didn’t push me to be better. I found more strength and energy.

When I made new friends building companies, or mentors that had built multi-million dollar businesses. This was when I noticed I started to thrive. I asked questions and learned from them, and ultimately our relationships made each one of us better.

This is why taking a friendventory is so very important. If you are building a company right now or you want to build one. Trust me; you will need all the encouragement and positive reinforcement you can get because everyone is going to count you out.

They are going to say your idea is dumb. You can’t do it. Sometimes even laugh in your face. But if you truly feel you can do this and make it a success story. Take a friendventory and get rid of the negative people and bring in the positive ones.

You will see a miraculous change.

If you don’t trust me then listen to what Dan Martell (5x founder, 2x VC funded, 3x exits & award-winning angel investor) had to say:

“If you are still hanging out with your high school friends that get drunk every weekend and talk shit about everyone in town, then don’t be surprised if you’re struggling to get your business off the ground or growing it.”