The Friend Effect
Tuesday, February 24th, 2009Who 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.