Shape Your Environment To Shape Yourself

There’s a saying that you are the average of the five people you spend most time with. While this is far from scientific, there is some truth to it and it should make everyone think about their own environment.

I was born and raised in a small Romanian town, Lipova, by an average family. Unlike the people around me, I always thought there’s more to life than just following a pre-determined plan society makes for you. I became aware of this the most after I finished high school and enrolled in University. In high school I studied computer programming and I had 2-3 colleagues with whom I always exchanged knowledge. We were pushing each other to become better at it and we were also good friends.

I wasn’t thrilled with the idea of going to University. At first I wanted to study in the UK, Denmark or France but I couldn’t do that for financial reasons. The best University in my area was the Polytechnic University of Timișoara and most of my high school colleagues also went there. I didn’t expect the professors there to be great or the course to teach me a great deal. What I mostly wanted was to find other students who are passionate about technology and who had bigger goals than getting a job at one of the big companies in the city. The fact that I dropped out after 2 months is a sign of how much it met my expectations. It was at this point that I realized the environment plays a big role in developing ourselves and in the opportunities we get. What I also realized after quitting is that I had the power to choose for myself what environment I want to be a part of.

I couldn’t change what people around me wanted to do but I could change the people I kept around me!

This made me lose touch with most of my high school friends. Being from such a small town and also being disappointed of what I found in the bigger city in the area meant that I had to meet new people some other way, namely via the Internet. This got my family worried for a while because I was spending most of my time communicating with people from all over the world via Skype instead of going out drinking with other friends, like a ‘normal’ 20 year old.

With all this online interaction, I first got much better at my favourite game, poker, and through this I also got to meet many smart people with whom I shared much more similar goals than anyone I’ve met before. Two of the people I met online are Cris Mihalache and Thomas Tiroch. Not long after meeting them I moved to Vienna and we started Spectrum IT together, the company behind all of our projects. By moving to Vienna and working on our projects I got the opportunity to create a growth and development focused environment for myself and the people around me.

As an entrepreneur, you want to change the status quo with your business. To do this you also have to change the status quo of your entourage, regardless of how much negativity you face from your close ones. Maybe you are not the average of the five people you spend the most time with but you are definitely only as strong as your team.

Be picky with your friends and you will not only be more successful but also happier!

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