You Are Who You Associate With

Daniel — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 04:08:26 +0000

Cliques are everywhere, they are unavoidable. As we grow up we float from clique to clique and we change “lunch table groups;” perhaps we were even members of a couple of different cliques at once. Our friends shape our reality and influence us beyond belief.

Even as we get older peer pressure is still extremely powerful. Have you ever noticed that no matter how old you are thugs hang out with thugs, executives hang out with other executives, and entrepreneurs hang out with entrepreneurs? The list is infinite! I wakeboard and I hang out with other wakeboarders, I’m ambitious so I surround myself with ambitious people… get it?

By surrounding myself with wakeboarders I am constantly pushed and encouraged to try new tricks, by joining a local running club I am pushed to become a better runner, and by making the effort to surround myself with entrepreneurs and others who think differently I am encouraged to take risks to follow my entrepreneurial dreams.

So take some time to think about what you aspire to be and do. Do the people you surround yourself with share these same goals and aspirations? Do they want to see you succeed? Do they push you to be come better at a mutual interest?

I’m not saying to dump your friends, I have many good friends who don’t share some of my most important interests, but think about the groups or “cliques” you belong to. What are they doing to further your career and aspirations? If nothing then make the effort to surround yourself with the people who will!

What if you want to be an entrepreneur, but all of your friends want to work their 9-5 for the rest of their lives? Go find an entrepreneur! They are in every city and small town. It doesn’t have to be the CEO of a large company, it can be the owner of the local hardware store; it doesn’t matter! Walk up to that person and explain that you want to be an entrepreneur and start asking questions, set up a weekly meeting, even ask them for a part-time job like Holly at WorkLoveLife did with a local coffee shop! These acts get your foot in the door to meet their entrepreneur friends as well as give you an understanding what it’s like to run a small business.

The internet is the most useful place to start. Search for local groups on Meetup or LinkedIn and find the group that fits your interest. For startup culture a local Dallas Entrepreneur, Alex Muse, co-founded a great blog group called SpringStage that is a coalition of bloggers who write about startups and startup life, it truly is a great resource. Use Twitter and start following those you admire; I love how I’m able to follow Guy Kawasaki and Lance Armstrong, both are people I greatly admire!

What are you waiting for!? Surround yourself with the people you want to be like and others who share your passions to ensure that you make your own dreams come true!

The Playful Entrepreneur

Merging My Two Worlds

Daniel — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:01:30 +0000

Today I did something that I haven’t done in over a year: I Googled my own name and the reality of my e-life slapped me across the back of the head pretty good. In the past the results have yielded a famous Australian blogger (who owns my name’s domain name), a magician, a wikipedia article on the famous Australian blogger, various references to the two of them, and a few doctors. Today I found different results. Thanks to Brazen Careerist, I am at a loss for words: I was in 3rd (although now I appear to be the 7th, which is mildly confusing).

I’ve been fairly good about trying to keep my work life, personal life, and blogging all separate, and I’ve taken a few steps to try and keep it that way. I don’t specifically mention where I work in this blog (and I never will), Young and Frugal is not on my professional resume, I’m pretty sure no one at work knows that I blog, and if you know my full name it’s either because you actually know me, or you read Brazen Careerist.

Not that any of those steps are foolproof for keeping my identity secret (they are not…especially having my full name on Brazen Careerist), but they have enabled me to reserve some deniability and relative anonymity. These mild few steps have also allowed readers to find me with relative ease, but not allow people looking for me to easily find my blog. However, my Google ranking turned my relative comfort in all of this upside down.

I’ve been trying to understand what my ranking means for me, and it’s confusing. The reality of it is that all someone has to do is search for my name to learn more about me than they ever would by reading my resume. Part of me thinks that this is the coolest thing ever, and the other part of me thinks that I probably should not have written about my boss being bitchy. Regardless, it’s out there and I can’t hide from it, so I figure that it’s time for me to take off my corporate camo, stop resisting, and embrace some of Dan Shawbel’s advice to more actively brand myself.

In order to provide a cohesive brand for myself I’ve listed a few steps that I will use to get myself started.

My name is Daniel Bowen. You can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
Young and Frugal is something to be proud of. It will appear on my professional resume starting tonight.
No more online political debates. (This one should be a lot easier for me now that the election is over.)
I won’t advertise my online presence at work, but if questioned it won’t be denied.
I will work to create a professional website for myself.
I will try to improve my Google Rankings.

I don’t know why I have waited so long to do this, but I am praying that this new experiment is a success.

The Art of What Not to Post

Young and Frugal » LinkedIn

You Are Who You Associate With

Merging My Two Worlds