We’ve probably heard one of these sayings: “Show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are”, “Birds of a feather flock together”, “your network is your net worth”, “your first five friends determine your next five years” likes attract likes” and the list goes on….
These sayings ultimately boil down to the influential power of our circles in determining the direction of our lives. And this isn’t farther from the truth. The time we spend listening to things is as important as who we listen to and with.
The same holds true in our financial lives. The friends we keep can have a tremendous impact on our financial outcomes.
If you surround yourself with smart money thinking friends, people who are driven, positively ambitious, time conscious, focused and opportunity-leveraging, chances are that those habits will rub off on you in no time. There are no square pegs in round holes with such friendships because it has to be value-driven. No time for slackers!
In Arese Ugwu’s Smart Money Woman, we see this dramatically play out in the relationship between Zuri and Tsola. Before the whole romance- and by the way don’t you just love Zuri and Tsola- his not too sweet but smart advice got her off on the right track in dealing with her terrible debt, bad spending habits and unlocking her career potential.
Zuri’s financial and career life took an upward trajectory because of the valuable advice and support she received from Tsola Preware.
The reverse can also be the case here. If you surround yourself with friends who are lackadaisical with their spending, always for the gram, have ostentatious lifestyles with an empty bank account, negative-minded with no ambition, it wouldn’t be a surprise if your life starts heading south because it’s all bad energy. Relationships are symbiotic. In other words, it’s a give-take-mould process.
In Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals, Thomas C. Corley shared insights from his five-year study of wealthy individuals. According to him, the habits of the people you surround yourself with have a direct impact on your success and wealth.
The successful ones had surrounded themselves with richer relationships while those who were not, unintentionally surrounded themselves with toxic relationships.
Building a wealthy inner circle like every process takes time and discipline. Apply the following steps to get started:
Be value-driven: Building quality relationships is ultimately an exchange of value. You need to ask yourself what am I bringing to the table and how will this association help me grow? If you don’t see yourself as valuable, others will not. Are you valuable? Do you have marketable skills? Are your associations profitable?
Build relationships horizontally: While it’s essential to network upward in building your circle, it’s equally important to build solid relationships horizontally. We need to look to the next person beside us, who’s as ambitious and positive as we are and explore areas that can help us grow together. This way, we can inspire narratives that others can do the same if we can do it.
Leverage the power of numbers: An African proverb says “if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”. I believe we all want to go far with our aspirations and goals and it starts with having the right clique!
The right clique collaborates with you yet challenges you to be the best version of yourself. Though you might have different goals, you keep each other committed and accountable with the necessary steps to achieve them.
How to reach your goals with your Clique:
- Actualize your goals: What goals do you share? Perhaps it might be to apply to certain grad schools by a specific timeline or raise one million Naira to start that business? Whatever it’s, visualize them and set strategies to achieve them.
- Establish ground rules and methods to measure your progress along the way: You need to know what’s overboard? What’s a no-deal and respect those boundaries to build a healthy relationship along the way. Mutual understanding and discipline are essential here. Don’t trivialise your relationships because of access or familiarity.
- Be supportive: Foster a safe space to speak about your wins, highs, lows, weaknesses and challenges. Being supportive starts with the understanding that nobody is perfect, therefore we all need a helping hand.
At HerVest, one of our SMAT Values-Accessible reads in part that We are the financial partner for today’s woman — whom we happily serve through a judgement-free women community. Loyalty is paramount. Your clique should be able to count on you to lean in ways that make a difference in their situations.
4. Gamify your journey: Collaborate to compete. Set those goals and challenge one another along the way with rewards that keep you motivated.
5. Grow with your Cliq: There’s absolutely nothing more inspiring than a Cliq of financially independent babes cheering one another on towards their money goals.
It gets better when you create a Cliq Plan on HerVest with family and friends and save towards those financial targets while earning competitive returns on the go!
With this, we can consciously build communities of financially winning women that inspire our generation to stand on their own two feet. Get started here today!