Who is in Your Inner Circle?

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about my inner circle of both professional and personal influencers and friends and I came across this excellent post by Dan Schawbel.

Here is how to break down people who should and shouldn’t be part of your inner circle:

Who should be in your inner circle?

People that you admire and wish to build a mutual relationship with.
People that you see yourself working with, whether at a company, your own company or side projects.
People that you have enough shared interests with so you can easily keep in touch with them, without appearing fake.
People that have complementary strengths.
People who understand the principles of networking and won’t use you and abuse you.
People who are passionate, caring and seek to help others.

Who shouldn’t be in your inner circle?

People that have nothing in common with you.
People who aren’t responsive, dependable and have poor behavior.
People that don’t have the common traits of successful individuals (like you); they aren’t ambitious, persistent and focused on what they want.
People that don’t let you be part of their inner circle.

It’s important to remember that it does matter to our quality of life who we allow into our inner circle. No doubt about it, people with poor attitudes or behavior (in whatever area that may be) will affect our focus and personal and professional growth.

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