Wrong surroundings = Wrong results

I currently have the wrong surrounding to reach my next objective. It's difficult to move forward without the right surroundings. Don't get me wrong, I love all of my friends but not all of them are aiming for the same things that I am.

Example ; You are a creative painter. You really can communicate feelings through your medium. Your paintings gather interest and are recognized as some as promising art work. You are a promising artist and you need to become and established artist. Unfortunately, you work in an accounting firm as a clerk and 97% of your friends simply don't get it though they can say you are talented. What do you do? Can you used your friends network to move forward and become established? Will they expose you to different artists that are advancing rapidly in their careers? Most likely not. If so, it's too rare and few. You need to find other creatives that'll challenge you or inspire you to create more and better.

True, I have been going through the motions of life. Death, marriage, job changes and everything else in between...But....

99% of the effort has to come from me. I can't possibly let someone else be in charge of my success. But you hardly succeed alone. No one does. There are too many influences that teaches us to grow stronger and create new patterns in your brain. Good or bad, other people teaches us how to love, how to be careful, how to be hurt and how to forgive. You owe to those people those "settings" that enable your success. Let's build from that ; 

With a better surrounding, you create a better support group. People that have been through those difficult motions that one day you will encounter. People that you can share energy with that will be understand your pride when you hit a major milestone. People that will push your to do more and perform more.

How to get there? I believe networking and investing time in people. You never know what kind of lessons you will learn by simply listening to stories that people went through. You never know who they know. You can learn from it. A book that I read many time says something in the fashion : The typical millionaire doesn't walk around on the weekend in a 1000$ suit. Don't dismiss someone because he doesn't sweat money.

Let's find new friends then.