 Whether you like it or not, you will be influenced by the people you associate with, and as you are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with, you will become exactly like the people you spend your time with. If you don't know this now, get it. How you think, what you believe, how you are now living in the kind of life you will have in the future, will be determined by your association. So, if you are so hung up and keeping wrong friends, you must be willing to accept the consequences of the kind of friends you keep. I know for young people, keeping friends is not something you can do without. As much as I am not implying that you become a loner, here are five rules from famous people about the power of association and friendship relationships, and how to manage them without ruining your future. 1. Surround yourself only with people who are willing to take you higher, Oprah Winfrey. If your friend isn't going anywhere, why should you be going with him? An old friend wondered why I stopped visiting him, why I stopped calling him, why I stopped picking his calls. The reason was simple, he wasn't adding to my life. He wasn't helping us both grow in any way. I wanted to discuss dreams, he only wanted to discuss girls. I wanted to discuss how we can make our lives better, he only wanted to discuss the next party, booze and getting laid. You can choose the kind of friends you associate with, based on the kind of future you want. If your friends are going in direction A, and you are going in direction B, you aren't in a marriage relationship, where it is often advised that you try to agree with your partner's choice. You are seeing forward, and your friends are seeing backward. It wouldn't take long before you start to walk back, just to keep up with your friends. Never feel sorry for giving up your friendship relationships that aren't making your life better, your future isn't going to blame you for making the right choice of whom you associate with now. 2. You are the average of the 5 people you associate with, Jim Rahn. I remember when I was in university. I hated the sight of figures more than anything. Yet, I was studying civil engineering. A course that required a very deep knowledge of mathematics and figures. As much as I hated and feared the department, I had a group of friends with whom I was very close. They were about some of the best guys in the department. I didn't know much about mathematics, but spending so much time with these guys, who were always studying and excelling in all the courses in the department, I soon started to pick up too. In fact, it was unconscious. Just hanging around fools will make you become a fool. King Solomon, the wisest man that ever lived, said in the bible that do not go out with an angry man. Why? Because if you do, you will learn his ways. Successful people choose their friends wisely, because they know relationships have a strong influence on how much they succeed. A man who thinks he will never be rich and acts that way will doom you, no matter how strong you think you are. I spent so many months around the circle of people who believed money is evil. And in no time, I didn't know how I also had started thinking money is evil, such that I stopped working hard to make money. Boy, I was so broke. You become the kind of people you associate with. 3. Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than to be in bad company. Booker T. Washington I am not against friendships. I am not against building relationships with other people. In fact, I am not anti-social. I strongly believe good friendship is all about giving yourself to others. Show lots of kindness to others within the relationship, so it grows. But friendship relationship is so strong that if not defined, it could drive your dreams to the gutter. The quality of your association will determine the quality of your life. And the interesting thing is, you are so powerful that you have the absolute right to choose who your friends are. So, if your friendship circle or association isn't what you intended it to be, you can choose to walk away to build better friends. This doesn't mean you must keep jumping from one friendship to another, without any intention of giving but getting. Great relationships are built by you choosing to give, not waiting to get, but where your friends are a pain in the rear. Always putting a hole in your efforts, show them the door. You are not obligated to keep friends who are unwilling to grow. 4. You must constantly ask yourself these questions. Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most importantly, what do they have me becoming? Then ask yourself the big question, is that okay? Your life does not get better by chance. It gets better by change. Jim Ron. You are becoming like the people you associate with. You are speaking, thinking, talking and acting like them. A commitment to control yourself and meet wrong associations may seem to work for a time, but the influence isn't often intentional. It slips into you without knowing. If the blind leads the blind, both of them will fall into a ditch, says Jesus Christ. If you run with people going in the same direction as you, you will get to where you are going faster. The less time you spend with wrong associations, the faster you make achieving a life of success easier for you. 5. You cannot hang out with negative people and expect to live a positive life. Joel Osteen. I have been in a negative mood before and as soon as I entered among some positive friends, that mood changed. I have encountered issues I thought I would never overcome, but as soon as I shared them with some positive-minded friends, the solution came. By wrong association, young King Rehobin in the Bible rejected the counsel of the elders, took the counsel of his wrong friends and ruined his life. By wrong association, Amnon in the Bible took his friend's counsel on how to commit incest with his sister, and he died for it. Dina, the daughter of Jacob, walked with wrong friends and was raped. There are beautiful sides of good friendships, and successful people value good friendships over bad ones. Anthony Robbins says, If we surround ourselves with people who are successful, who are forward-moving, who are positive, who are focused on producing results, who support us, it will challenge us to be more and do more and share more. If you can surround yourself with people who will never let you settle for less than you can be, you have the greatest gift that anyone can hope for. A friendship that isn't building you is ruining you. It is great to build friends. It is wonderful to spend some quality time with your friends. In fact, you're often at your best when you spend time relaxing with friends after working so hard, but the friendship that isn't moving you forward will continue to be a wrench in your life. If you can't grow it, don't hold on to it. If it's not growing you, or even the other person, don't needlessly work on a dying fighter. If this video inspired you, subscribe to our channel. We love you.