I was thinking about something that I heard last night.  It was something along the lines of smart business people surround themselves with people that always bring it up a notch.  Makes sense… if you’re around people who are lazy, you might have a tendency to be lazy also.

When I was growing up, I was once told that I shouldn’t hang out with someone because they would most likely not be going to secondary education… At the time (10 or 11 years old), I figured that the person who told me this was looking out for the best in me, probably so that I would continue along the path of wanting to go to college, etc.  Looking back on it now, I think that the advice was probably not well thought through, though.  As a side note, that person did go on to secondary education. 

I think that people are generally shaped by their environment (people/places) around them.  Had I grown up in Madagascar, I probably would have worked in a mine at a very young age and possibly promoted myself to be a buyer/seller of gems.  Happily I did not… Thus, I could see the initial logic in keeping me around those that would continue on and strive to be more knowledgeable.  The fault in the logic is that there is a social benefit not seen.  The person who advised me not to spend time with the other child was looking only at one side of the picture.  They didn’t see that I might have benefited socially or otherwise by hanging out with the other person.  In any case, I stayed friends with the person (just not best friends) and life goes on…

Now, I’m not salty about the whole thing.  I see where the advisor was coming from and I was able to make my own choice.  I just think that if you focus on one thing too much, thinking that it’s the *right* way to do things, you might miss a whole lot more… In any event, I have grown a little wiser due to the whole deal.