Surround Yourself With Smarter People: For The Entrepreneur

Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you, people who you can bounce off ideas with, and people who are there to motivate you till the very end.

It’s been three months since I’ve been out of a job and in the process I’ve been looking for other opportunities to keep me going. The time has been spent traveling from North to South California to even random places, like Utah. I’ve been able to interact with a variety personalities in the YouTube space and startups. During this period, it’s also important to be aware that measures are in place to protect at-will employees from unwarranted terminations, which can provide some reassurance as you navigate your job search and career transitions.

This whole ordeal has led me to one conclusion: I need to surround myself with people who will get me to work. This is basically my issue is that I’ve been able to get out of bed and start working. You can see this as a sad thing but I’m unable to work alone. I love working an office. I love working with people who I can talk to about my ideas and here the projects they’re working on – this keeps me on my toes. And, I’m taking this philosophy not only for my own personal work, but also to the people who I work with (interns).

For example, I’ve now left my girlfriend in Northern California (staying long-distance) because the peer group I need to be at is in LA. And, I just purchased a plane ticket for my intern so I can start working in LA over the summer.

I believe the biggest investment you can make are the people you surround yourself with: you can do things yourself, but it’s always great to get second opinions on things because it can only make your work better. Also, it’s always great to have people who also believe in your projects because that in itself will make you make more.

I’m saying that you should be doing the same thing.

Drop People & Locations

Are you willing to sleep in your car to work in a space with people who will only make you and your projects better?

Are you willing to eat ramen noodle soup, starve yourself, and give up the visitation to see your loved ones to be surrounded by good people?

The answer to these two questions should be yes because intelligent people who just mesh well with what you’re doing (even personality) will get you farther than you can ever imagine.

This is coming from a clear business standpoint because if you’re trying to do something BIG – then sometimes you just need to take a break from the people who are not doing projects that relate or you’re inspired by.

Bring Value To The Group

You won’t be able to join this peer group if you’re not offering something of value as yourself. You need to be as ambitious and working on something worthwhile. It’s okay if you’re not the smartest of the group, all you need to do is offer something that others are not.

In my case the one thing I offer is my energy and work ethic to the group. Also, I’m the only writer / copywriter to the group and help them when it comes to writing their sales copy (for their products). So, I’m not the smartest but I found something I could offer.

Where To Find These People

There are many sites out there that can help you find people who are just like you (working on projects). These how I found these people.

– My College Network

– Meetup.com

– Networks of People who I run into at Events / Parties

Then, I’ll ask them if I could visit their offices: build trust and friendships. Pretty soon I move forward and just ask if I can work with them (in their offices). Entrepreneurs and business minded people are generally attracted to people who are hustling – you’ll usually get a yes.

If they’re your friends or people you already know, try to convince them to find a place where all of you could work / meetup. If it’s in a storage unit, someone’s house, your house, who knows! The idea is just to get yourself to start working with these smarter people.

You do not necessarily have to be working on the same projects, but you need to make sure that you’re working on projects that you all can help each other with.

Good luck.
Talk soon.
Jonathan