Another personal all-time favorite rules of business...

#5 Golden Guide to Success: Like Attracts Like

I went to a coffeehouse in North Beach the other day, and there at a long table, all reading the paper, chatting, and sipping their lattes, were luminaries including the city supervisor, political hopefuls, business leaders, and community activists....

They were having their morning meetings.

I had an inkling that people were doing the real deals here at breakfast, then following up with paperwork later in the office. It makes a lot of sense: if you like certain people and they like you, you'll probably get together frequently (in this case, they were there every morning at 8:00am).

If you "run with" a circle of people, you're also bound to make connections through that circle that will ultimately foster or thwart your abilities and opportunities. I personally want to run with the types of people who were at that table... every one of them probably has twenty+ more years of experience and plenty more names in their rolodex than I do.

Like attracts like:
If you hang out with people who are smarter, more successful, and in general more experienced than you, you will probably pick up a thing or two! If anything, you will have someone to turn to when you face a situation that you don't know how to deal with.

Like attracts like:
If you hang out with people who "drag you down", you too will probably get dragged down.

In this particular situation at the coffee place, the cafe owner stopped in and said hello, and on the strength of the people who were at that table, and by virtue of the fact that I am working with them on other projects, I now have an "in" to the cafe owner, who will feel even more comfortable contacting us whenever the desire arises.

Keep that in mind when you are seeking out new friends or building up your relations with your current business associates: Like attracts like!

"If you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas." - Jean Harlow