The Power Association

I remember when I was small, my parents would ensure that I study hard and get good grades in school every year...but why? They said, "So that you can get into a good school/class and mingle around with students who are keen to study hard." And so I did, and I became a student who studied hard.

Disclaimer:

Please don't get me wrong. I'm not implying that students who study hard are good, and students who don't study hard are bad. In fact, nowadays I would question the purpose and objective of our education system, and I would empathize with people who are excellent learners but just simply don't fit into our current education system and ended up being labelled as bad students.

After reading this book, now I finally understand why my parents had pressured me so hard in my studies. That's because they understood the power of association.

Here are some excerpt which I find very interesting:

Rich people associate with positive, successful people. Poor people associate with negative or unsuccessful people.

Successful people look at other successful people as a means of motivation and model to learn from, because modeling is one of the primary ways that people learn. Rich people are grateful that others have succeeded before them so that they now have a blueprint to follow that will make it easier for them to attain their own success.

The fastest and easiest way to create wealth is to learn exactly how rich people play the game. If you take the exact same actions and have the exact same mindset, chances are good you will get the exact same results.

When poor people hear about other people's success, they often judge them, criticize them, mock them, and try to pull them down to their own level.

Don't bother trying to get negative people to change. That's not your job. Your job is to use what you've learned to better yourself and your life. Be the model, be successful, be happy, then maybe they'll see the light (in you) and want some of it. If they choose to ask you your secret, tell them.

Just as steel is hardened in the fire, if you can remain true to your values while others around you are full of doubt and even condemnation, you'll grow faster and stronger.

Practice reframing other people's negativity as a reminder of how not to be. The more negative they are, the more reminders you get about how ugly that way of being really is. If you do begin to judge, criticize, and put them down for who they are and what they do, then you are no better than them.

You may have to make some courageous decisions about who you are and how you want to live the rest of your life. I for one would never live with a person who was negative and pooh-poohed my desire to learn and grow, be it personally, spiritually, or financially. I wouldn't do that to myself because I respect myself and my life and I deserve to be as happy and successful as possible. Either they move up or I move on!

"Birds of a feather flock together." Did you know that most people earn within 20% of the average income of their closest friends? That's why you'd better watch whom you associate with and choose whom you spend your time with carefully.

If you want to fly with the eagles, don't swim with the ducks.

Rich people hang around with winners. Poor people hang around with losers. Why? It's a matter of comfort. Rich people are comfortable with other successful people. They feel fully worthy of being with them. Poor people are uncomfortable with highly successful people. They're either afraid they'll be rejected or feel as if they don't belong. To protect itself, the ego then goes into judgement and criticism.

There is no statistics proof for the above claims. To me, these are common sense which are just uncommon to most people.

These two words "rich" and "success" are also very subjective terms. That's why it's up to you to define what do these two words mean to you, and what are the kind of association that you would be looking for.