Choose the Company You Keep Wisely

Words: Damian Lang

A few years back, I was walking a job site when I overheard a guy blowing off steam. He went off about the company, the schedule, the customer, his marriage; there wasn’t much he left out. The guy working next to him was a staunch company man who didn’t say much at first. But after lunch, when I ventured back by, he’d joined right in on the gripe session. By the end of the week, he’d picked up every single grievance, word for word, like he’d caught a cold.

That's when an old line from a mentor really clicked for me: If you hang around turds long enough, you start to smell like one.

It's crude, but it's true. And it applies to business just as much as it does to everyday life.

Why No One Makes It On Their Own
I am listening to "Think and Grow Rich" again. It’s one of those books I return to when I am going through a difficult time. It amazes me how I catch something new each time depending on where I am in life.

Napoleon Hill spent 20 years studying the most successful people of his era, and he kept seeing the same pattern: not even one of them did it alone, and they definitely didn't surround themselves with negative influences.

Hill talked about what he called the “Mastermind,” the idea that when two or more people come together in true harmony toward a common purpose, something happens that's bigger than either person could produce on their own.

It works the other way, too. Stick a chronic complainer next to someone driven, and eventually that ambition erodes. I've seen it drag down entire crews and poison good business partnerships. It even creeps into life at home. It's almost impossible to stay sharp around people who've given up.

Hill's other big point is one that trips people up because it sounds too simple to be true. Your mind moves toward whatever you keep feeding it. Feed your mind doubt and complaints, and your decisions and overall approach begin leaning that way. Give it purpose and belief, and those thoughts start moving you forward rather than dragging you down.

I have run construction and manufacturing operations for a long time now, and I have seen it firsthand: the people who walk onto a job site already defeated build worse buildings than the people who walk onto that same job site believing they're building something that will outlast them.

Which Seven Are You Feeding?
Hill also breaks emotion down into two camps: seven that build people up and seven that tear them down. On the positive side: desire, faith, love, sex, enthusiasm, romance, and hope. On the negative side: fear, jealousy, hatred, revenge, greed, superstition, and anger.

He argued you can't be driven by a positive and a negative emotion at the same time; one always crowds out the other. So, the practical question isn't, “Am I a positive person?” It's, “Which seven am I feeding today?” A crew leader soaked in fear and anger transmits it just like a person filled with enthusiasm. Emotion is contagious on a job site, just like anywhere else.

The Partner Behind The Drive
I'll admit, the first time I read the chapter where Hill lists sex right alongside faith and love as a driving force, I was stunned. But he wasn't being crude. Hill’s point was that this drive is the most powerful energy a person carries. The most accomplished people didn't try to suppress it. They had a partner who fully believed in them, and they learned to pour that restless, creative energy straight into their work instead of blowing it off in every direction.

He studied plenty of highly accomplished people and noticed the pattern: behind the big empires was almost always a partner who built up the person's ambition instead of cutting it down. The underlying idea holds up across the board. The people closest to you, especially the ones sharing your home, are either adding to your drive or pulling it right out of you. There is no neutral.

When Two Minds Fuel Each Other
You see this exact dynamic with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. In 1896, Ford was an unknown engineer building his first gas-powered car on his own time. While at a banquet in Brooklyn, he ended up talking with his hero, Thomas Edison, and sketched his engine on the back of a menu.

Edison listened, slammed his fist down, and told him, “Young man, that's the thing; you have it! Keep at it!”

Ford later wrote that Edison’s slam on the table was “worth worlds to me. No person up to then had given me any encouragement.” That single moment gave Ford the conviction to quit his job and go all-in on gas engines.

That began a lifelong friendship. Eventually they bought winter homes next to each other, spent weeks camping in the woods to trade ideas, and constantly sharpened each other's thinking. They made each other bigger than they would have been alone. That’s what happens when two people fuel each other's drive.

Through the lens of Hill’s Mastermind theory, take a look at your team and the leaders around your table. Then ask yourself honestly which seven emotions are getting fed most often and who's helping feed them.

If you're hanging around turds, you already know what you're starting to smell like. Maybe it’s time to be like Ford and go find your Edison instead.
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Damian Lang is CEO of Lang Masonry Contractors, Wolf Creek Construction, 3 Promise Labor Services, FlexCrew, and EZG Manufacturing. To view the products and equipment his companies created to make job sites safer and more efficient, visit his website at ezgmfg.com. To receive his free e-newsletters or to speak with Damian about his management systems or products, email dlang@watertownenterprises.com or call 740-749-3512.

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