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Have you noticed how you feel when you're around positive people? You feel uplifted, refreshed and energised. You learn that life is what you make it and that you make your own 'luck'.
Consequently the opposite is true when you're unfortunate to be with negative people. They drain your energy, are usually unhappy and seem to attract sickness and misfortune in their lives.
As an entrepreneur, you have to conserve your energy so that you've got plenty of it to keep you moving full steam ahead in your own business. The last thing you need is to have these negative influences affecting your own emotional well-being and causing doubt to creep in.
Gail is a friend of mine who runs her own art supply business. She was relating to me for the hundredth time about the situation her brother was in. Gary is a nice enough guy. He's hardworking, honest and a good father. His only flaw is that he is extremely negative. After a five minute conversation with him, you feel like you've been hit by a bus. He has the knack of sapping up your energy due to his negativity.
It's interesting how Gary's life has turned out. He has owned a number of businesses and none of them have been successful. He constantly gets sick and so do his two children. He's been married twice and is nearly ready to tie the knot again. What he doesn't realise is that he's the problem and that it doesn't matter how many times he gets married, his attitude will follow him and continue to create challenges in his life until he works on himself.
Gary blames all his woes on everyone and everything else except himself. He also has a couple of very negative friends whom he loves being around which doesn't help him whatsoever as they all commiserate with each other. As the saying goes 'misery loves company'.
Gary has never done any personal development and when you bring that up with him he always scoffs at the idea believing that he doesn't need it. Gail has tried to get Gary to see the light and do some work on himself yet he refuses to listen. As I've often said to Gail, you cannot change Gary yet you can change your behaviour.
Instead of listening to him moan and groan about how hard life is, perhaps it was time she told him the honest truth and offer some solutions to him at the same time. If he takes no action, then she'd be best to spend as little time as possible around him otherwise she will continue to be affected by his negative attitude.
Having your own business requires plenty of guts, determination, motivation and a thick skin. It requires lots of energy and being around people like Gary is a sure fire way to drain you and pull you down.
You need fuel for your fire. Otherwise you will lose motivation, confidence and you self-esteem will take a battering. This will have a major impact on your productivity and profitability. |
