If you think this section is about surrounding yourself with people smarter than you, you are right. Though only in part, because most of the section will be about something else.
Let's start with something obvious that many already know. Your environment has a very strong influence on a person and can change them beyond recognition. Put a millionaire for ten years among people working in a factory, and in all likelihood after ten years they will no longer be a millionaire and their mindset will sink to the level of a factory worker (at least in part). Put a poor person in an environment of millionaires, and in ten years they may become quite successful.
People often try to get rid of bad habits, for example to stop drinking or smoking. They manage for a while through willpower and motivation. They hold out for a week or two, but then they slip and start drinking and smoking again. Don't be quick to blame such people — at least they tried. Unfortunately, their plan was flawed from the start, because you cannot quit smoking if all your colleagues at work smoke. You cannot give up alcohol if your relatives drink. No amount of willpower will help here, and sooner or later the person will return to their old bad habits.
I myself felt a change of environment. When I had a second job and commuted from the suburbs to the city, on the way I used to play cards — "fool" — with railway workers. Why them? Because I had known them since childhood — I myself come from a family of railway workers. There were also those who did not work in the suburb where my parents lived, and they too had to get to the city. So at one time my circle was exactly these guys. Yes, I learned to play "fool" well and picked up the habit of remembering what was discarded and what was taken into hand, but you'll agree that's a rather odd skill.
Then I moved to Minsk and my environment changed. First, when I moved I changed jobs and met new colleagues; second, I started spending much more time with guys from college and university who had also settled in Minsk. These two factors strongly changed my life. I've already partly talked about my friends: they were learning new technologies and going deeper into existing ones, which was quite contagious for me. I saw how they changed jobs for higher pay or simply demanded raises on the back of what they had learned. Since then I realised I could do the same and wanted to be significantly smarter than the average programmer. First, it's prestigious; second, it's a chance for career growth; third, it's a rise in salary; and fourth, by learning something new you fill gaps in your knowledge. My friends had a real influence on me. For the first few years we were even driven by healthy competition over salaries: everyone strove to earn more and would casually mention their income. Though by now almost everyone has bought flats and cars, and the need to compete has faded. Salary comparisons no longer come up in conversation.
Besides friends, I also spoke about colleagues who made a good and right impression on me. One of the pioneers of this team is our CEO and project owner, Vitaly. He is someone who reads a lot and pays attention to productivity and self-improvement even more than I do. He will probably write a book too, maybe more than one. Besides him, in project management and in senior positions there are other people who have also achieved a lot and keep developing. For example, the executive director of one of the projects, Arthur, was working in a factory ten years ago and now heads the company. On the whole I think I'm the only one in the management team who works in the specialty I originally chose and studied. The rest are self-taught people who, through luck or hard work on themselves, eventually became who they are now. By the way, I can count myself as self-taught too, because any programmer fresh from university or college is helpless and barely capable of anything.
That was the fairly obvious part of the chapter. We've seen that people's environment has a very strong influence on a person. But simply knowing that is far from enough. It's important to divide people into groups effectively and to choose who you want to spend time with and who you don't. That list may include your closest and oldest friends, nearest relatives or simply people dear to you. That's no reason, of course, to stop seeing them. On the contrary, once you know about the groups I'll describe below, you can try to help your loved ones move from one group to another.
There is a writer called Dave Logan. He has a remarkable book, "Tribal Leadership", in which he sorts all kinds of personality types and social groups onto clear shelves. In short, there are five levels.
The slogan of the first level goes roughly: "Life is shit". These are the most dangerous people, among whom you often find criminals, murderers, drunkards, drug addicts and other dubious characters. They expect nothing from themselves, from others or from life.
The slogan of the second level is: "My life is shit". There is a fundamental difference between these groups. The person realises that life in general can be good — like for someone on TV or on the internet — but not for them. Most often these people are not very well-off or successful either. Some of them are drunkards or even criminals, but most are just armchair experts. They are the ones who believe in every kind of conspiracy theory, secret Masonic control, predictions and similar nonsense. People who don't want or can't change their life for the better. But at least they realise that somewhere, for someone, life really can be better. Need I say that it's better to keep your distance from such people? I don't think so, it's clear enough.
The slogan of the third group is: "I'm great (and you're not)". Such people live first and foremost by competition and the urge to outdo everyone and be better. On the whole, some traits of this group are not so bad, and it is certainly better than the first two. Incidentally, this is the most numerous and widespread group.
Moving on. The slogan of the fourth group is: "We're great (and they're not)". In essence, these people are also driven by competition, but no longer within the team — rather between companies and in different settings. People are willing to give up their personal interests and ambitions; they see nothing wrong with employee of the month in the department being not you but one of your colleagues, if that helps in any way to reach common goals.
And finally, the slogan of the fifth group is: "Life is wonderful". Here there is no competition at all — neither between employees inside the company nor between companies themselves. Imagine a pharmaceutical company that sincerely tries to help people and invent a new drug to fight cancer. They are even willing to work together with competitors and share their findings. Of course, that's more of a fictional example, because the pharmaceutical industry in terms of competitiveness, turnover and profitability is hardly less successful than IT. Don't believe me? Look at the Fortune Global 500 ranking of the world's largest companies and you'll see that alongside IT companies in the top spots are drug manufacturers.
So every person in one way or another belongs to one of these five groups. Maybe not entirely, and they may show signs of both higher and lower groups, but globally that doesn't change the overall picture. And what influences this? What determines which social group a person belongs to? Right — their environment! So I'll stress again how important it is to surround yourself with the right people and be in the right team.
Over a lifetime a person can move between these five levels, like a manager going door to door with frying pans and pots in a five-storey building. Because of different life situations — both lucky twists of fate and setbacks — a person can rise or slide to different levels fairly quickly. Of course it doesn't happen in a week, but over a couple of years it's quite possible, especially if the person changes their environment. So it's very important to watch yourself and your loved ones so they don't slide into a lower group, and to do your best to help them move to a higher one.
