Ruth Sanderson

Who do you knock about with?  Whether it’s face to face or via social networking like Twitter and Facebook.

Your connections have an impact on you.  It’s said that we’re 6 degrees of separation away from anyone, making it a very small world.  Indeed a phone call I got last week from someone I hadn’t seen for a couple of years, included the opening, “I notice you’re LinkedIn to blah, I met them last week at a conference (location miles away).”

I remember the first time my mentor told me that my earnings would be very similar to the 6 people I spent the most time with.  Moral of this being if you want to be a millionaire, knock about a lot with some millionaires.

One thing is true, the people you spend the most time with you’ll share the most in common with.  If they like watching football on TV, chances are you do too.  If they’re in to studying metaphysics, then maybe you do too.  Now the first I know so little about, but the latter, well if you ever fancy a conversation

Nicholas Christakis has been researching the dynamics of personal influence.  He concluded that we’re influenced by up to 3 degrees of separation, not the full 6.  One of his examples includes that “a person is 15% likelier to be happy if his/her friends are happy, 10% likelier if the friends’ friends are happy, and 6% likelier is the friends of those friends’ friends are happy.”  It no longer matters how happy the 4th,5th and 6th degree of separation are.

If you want something (be it tangible or intangible) look at those you spend the most time with, do they have ‘it’ or want ‘it’, if so you’re in good company, if not there could be some tough decisions coming up.

When you see something, how often do you make judgements based on the setting in which you see it?

A friend sent me an email about an experiment organised by the Washington Post.

In a nutshell, a young chap plays the violin at a metro station one cold morning in Washington DC.  It’s rush hour, he plays several pieces of music over 45 mins and more than a thousand people pass by.  During his performance a few people slow down, 7 stop and about 27 people gave him money.  The one who paid him most attention was a 3 year old boy, his mum doing her best to drag him along so she wouldn’t be late for work.  During this time he collected $32.  Between each piece there was silence, no applause or recognition.

Who was this violinist?   Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world, playing various classical pieces on a violin worth a cool $3.5 million.  What’s more prior to the experiment on the metro station, tickets for his performance at a theater in Boston were sold out and the seats averaged $100.

The experiment was done to see if in a common place setting we notice real beauty and talent, and do we allow ourselves time to appreciate it.  Or are we so absorbed in the minutiae of our life that we miss many special moments to be lost forever.

So back to my initial question - to what extent do you let the environment influence your expectations, your judgement, your perception?