Behind Every Successful Person is a Great Team

The road to success can be a long, vigorous and brutal journey. Not everyone can maintain the focus to stay on course and succeed. Therefore, I believe all entrepreneurs or devoted leaders should have a support team to help them through this lengthy process. Your support team can consist of family, friends, employees or coworkers. The purpose of this team is to encourage you to keep moving towards your goal, even when it seems impossible and obstacles are in your path. They will provide assistance in helping you overcome obstacles and give you advice. Moreover, they will make you believe you can achieve the impossible and hold you accountable for your actions.

As I write this blog, I am thinking about the wonderful people in my life. I love my support team. Today, my good friend Andrew picked me up from my house so we can attend our normal bi-weekly to Men’s Bible Study. During our normal 30 minute car ride, we usually discuss our past work week, family or music. However, today was different. As soon as I entered his car he asked, “How’s your website coming along?” This threw me off guard because I knew I hadn’t been writing in the past week. I replied, “It’s going well…but, I need to add more blog posts to the site.”

He began to explain the difference between quality and quantity and related his message to scripture in the Bible. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:23 that the only thing of ultimate value that we build into other people is a relationship with Jesus. Also, Jesus teaches us in Matthew 22:38-39 that the two great commands are to love God with our entire being and to love our neighbor as ourselves. It’s all about relationships, both vertical and horizontal. It’s also about building quality disciples, and not the quantity. At that moment, I knew he's the type of person I need on my support team because he challenges my thinking, provides great sound advice, and encourages me to keep striving for success.

If you have someone in your life that doesn’t provide help, give good advice, or hold you accountable to meeting your goals, then you might want to reevaluate your relationship. You are guaranteed to have people in your life that don’t add value. These types of people are comfortable with your asymmetric relationship. Be careful because these people will hold you back from accomplishing your goals or make your journey even more strenuous. The key to success is to surround yourself with like-minded people and to build a team around you of people who care about your dream as much as you do.

So who is on your support team? Are these individuals providing you the necessary support you need to succeed? Try this exercise. Take out a sheet of paper and list out the people you interact with on a daily basis. Then highlight the individuals that inspire you and make you a better person. The individuals highlighted are the people you should want to have on your team when trying to reach success. Share your goals and vision with them. Ask them for advice and mentorship. These people will keep you inspired and motivated to continue when your journey gets tough.

#PersonalGrowth