FROM AN EMAIL FROM AN OLD FRIEND

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From: Old Friend (yes I have one!)
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2007
To: John Reinke
Subject: It Is Better To Be Alone, Than In The Wrong Company

Anonymous from a friend, apparently from the internet…..but very interesting. Sounds like some of the advice from your blog!

It Is Better To Be Alone, Than In The Wrong Company

Tell me who your best friends are, and I will tell you who you are. If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl. But, if you associate with eagles, you will learn how to soar to great heights. “A mirror reflects a man’s face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses.” The simple but true fact of life is that you become like those with whom you closely associate – for the good and the bad.

The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity.

An important attribute in successful people is their impatience with negative thinking and negative acting people. As you grow, your associates will change. Some of your friends will not want you to go on. They will want you to stay where they are. Friends that don’t help you climb will want you to crawl. Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream. Those that don’t increase you will eventually decrease you. Consider this:
— Never receive counsel from unproductive people.
–Never discuss your problems with someone incapable of contributing to the solution, because those who never succeed themselves are always the first to tell you how. Not everyone has a right to speak into your life. You are certain to get the worst of the bargain when you exchange ideas with the wrong person.
–Don’t follow anyone who’s not going anywhere. With some people you spend an evening: with others you invest it.
–Be careful where you stop to inquire for directions along the road of life.
–Wise is the person who fortifies his life with the right friendships.

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>If you run with wolves, you will learn how to howl.

And, if you hang with a turkey, do you learn to gobble? :-)

>you become like those with whom you closely associate

Not sure I agree with that. I think it might be better to say, “You are what you think! Think you’re a “good guy”, and you’ll tend to become what you think you are. I’m thinking of Ronald Regan, who went from Bonzo movies to be President and his writings showed how he grew. I’m thinking John Wayne, from a bad Marine to a Heroic Icon. I’m think Gandhi, who went from being a venial little lawyer to a Great Emancipator. All have flaws. All had one thing in common, the belief in a big idea. Many of the self-help gurus preach about it. So is it “I’ll believe it when I see it” or “I’ll see it when I believe it”?

>Your friends will stretch your vision or choke your dream.

I’m thinking of the great Paul Scoefield line in Man For All Seasons. “Come along with us, if for nothing more than old times sake” with the response “And when you stand in front of your Maker and get to go to Paradise for following your conscience, and I am assigned to Hell for not following mine, will you come along … for old time’s sake?”.

No some times friends are neither “stretchers or chokers”.

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Watch what you read form the net. You to could become a … … Libertarian! ;-)

fjohn

p.s., thanks for a great blog fodder. and, the idea that my blog could have some whizdumb!