The Daily Mastermind
ALL EPISODES
Episode 1077 · Jan 27, 2025

How to Choose the People in Your Life More Carefully

Listen

The company you keep shapes more than your mood; it shapes your trajectory. In this episode of The Daily Mastermind, George Wright III delivers a Monday morning message about one of the most overlooked decisions you make as an entrepreneur and as a person: who you allow into your inner circle.

George opens with a quote from Les Brown that sets the tone for everything that follows.

Other people's opinions don't have to become your reality.

That single idea is easy to nod at and hard to live. George spends this episode making sure you actually live it.

Why Self-Confidence Is Eroding in the Age of Social Media

George points to a troubling pattern: self-confidence and self-esteem are dropping, and the cause is not just the news cycle or a difficult economy. It is, he argues, that people are allowing the wrong influences to crowd their lives and businesses. Technology, social media, and the competitive drive of entrepreneurship all conspire to create an environment where external validation feels necessary, even when it is actively harmful.

Scrolling through your social media newsfeed, George says, is one of the worst habits you can have. It may feel like a mental break, but what it actually does is feed a false narrative, one built on comparison, negative commentary, and the quiet erosion of your sense of self.

What You Need to Stop Doing Right Now

George outlines a clear list of behaviors to cut:

Stop giving value to other people's opinions. Other people's commentary does not define your path. More than that, stop inviting it. Too many people ask for opinions from individuals who do not share their vision and whose advice will pull them sideways rather than forward.

Stop asking for permission. Whether it is permission to chase a goal, pursue something meaningful, or simply live the life you want, the habit of waiting for someone else to approve your moves will keep you stuck indefinitely.

Stop seeking validation. Self-worth wrapped up in the approval of others is fragile by design. When you break the need for external validation, you begin to move with intention rather than with anxiety.

Eliminate workplace negativity. Negative comments and negative culture need to be suffocated, not tolerated. George is direct: you have to communicate clearly that negativity is not welcome in your space.

How to Filter Your Network with Intention

George draws on Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich" to make a point about specificity. Many people have heard that affirmations work, or that surrounding yourself with positive people matters, but they stop at the surface-level advice. Napoleon Hill emphasizes persistence as the gateway to results from affirmations. The same principle applies to your network: you cannot simply hope positive people show up. You have to architect the relationships you want with specific intent.

This means actively identifying who aligns with your vision. It does not mean cutting off everyone who disagrees with you. George is careful here: people who care about you may still carry a vision that does not match yours, and even well-meaning relationships can become limiting influences. The answer is not always to end those relationships, but to limit your exposure and be intentional about where you draw energy from.

The Real Benefits of Surrounding Yourself with Positive People

George introduces the concept of belief transference, and it is one of the most practically useful ideas in this episode. When you are around someone who already believes, their belief becomes available to you. You can count on their positivity until your own experience catches up and builds your own conviction. You borrow their certainty as a scaffold while you build yours.

Beyond belief, positive and successful people bring experience that can help you navigate your own challenges. They expand your vision simply by having a bigger one. And indirectly, being around people who attract opportunity means opportunities begin to find you too.

Find ways to guard your mind tightly against negative influences.

That is not a passive suggestion. It is a decision you make in advance, one that determines who gets access to your attention, your time, and your belief in yourself.

Action Steps

  • This week, add one new positive influencer to your network. It may be someone you reconnect with, someone new, or someone you follow online. Make the decision and act on it.
  • Stop scrolling through your social media newsfeed in excess. Replace that time with something that actually supports your goals.
  • Identify one relationship in your life that does not align with your vision and limit your exposure to it deliberately.
  • When you reach out to positive people, offer value and express genuine gratitude. Showing appreciation is the most effective way to attract and retain the kind of people who will elevate your life.
  • Practice specific intent with your network. Do not just hope for positivity around you; actively design the relationships you want.

Choosing the people in your life is not a passive process. As George says, people influence you whether you realize it or not, whether they are positive or negative. The question is whether you are being proactive about it. Start this week with one decision, one addition to your network, and let that be the first step. It is never too late to start living the life you were meant to live.

READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back to the Daily Mastermind. George Wright III here. I am your host. It's Monday morning and I want to give you a message today that I think you can carry throughout the week and it's about choosing carefully who you surround yourself with. You know, Les Brown said other people's opinions don't have to become your reality. In fact, let me read that again. Other people's opinions don't have to become your reality. Why is it that we struggle so much with positivity these days? I mean, there's so many things going on in the world, but it's affecting individuals individually from a standpoint of self-confidence, self-esteem, your own value, your personal value. Why do we see those things dropping? People are losing self-confidence, losing self-esteem. You know, I believe it's because we're allowing the wrong people to surround us in our lives and in our businesses. And I think we struggle with this because of just, you know, technology today, social media, and because of our own competitive spirits as entrepreneurs or business owners. And I think we need to begin to sort and filter the people in our lives because it's a direct reflect and effect on our life and our business and the quality that we're having. And so I want to talk to you today about some ways that you can do that, some ways that you can sort of filter your network. And also, I want to talk to you a little bit about some things that I think we need to identify in our lives that we need to stop doing. You know, we need to stop allowing people to influence or other people, just like Les Brown says, other people's influence, right? We need to stop allowing people's influence to determine the trajectory of our future. I highly encourage you to stop giving value to other people's opinions and comments. You know, you've got to stop doing that, but you also have to stop asking for other people's opinions. Too many of us are asking for others' advice and opinions that don't really serve us and that don't really align with what we want in our life. And so you have to stop asking for others' opinions, and you also have to stop asking for permission. A lot of us are looking for permission to be able to chase our goals, permission to be able to do things that we enjoy, permission for things that we want to do in our life that we know we need to do, but we're looking for permission. And finally, we've got to stop seeking validation. A lot of times our own self-esteem, our own self-confidence, and our own self-worth is wrapped up in getting the permission, opinions, and validation of other people And this is just something that you have to learn to recognize and learn to cut out of your life And when you stop the need to have these things then what happens is you start to you start to march to your own drum right You start to be able to create your life without looking to others in order to help validate that for you. And another thing that I've kind of noticed that I talk about quite a bit is we need to stop having these habits that attract the negative people and opinions and influence into our life. For example, social media newsfeed. Look, I know it's difficult to be able to get off social media when it comes to having a business or maybe even connecting with your family and friends and things. But scrolling through your social media newsfeed is just a waste of time. So many of us will take time out. We think we need a mental break and we'll just scroll through our social media newsfeed. And what we're doing is we're adding to this negative source of information that's creating a false narrative in our mind about needing validation and permission and looking at what other people are saying and doing. And so scrolling through your social media news feed, at least in excess, is probably the worst thing that you could be doing. Also, negative comments and culture in the workplace. We've got to eliminate this ability that people think they have to be able to talk negative and talk negative around you. You've got to eliminate the ability for people to be. You have to suffocate that negativity that surrounds you. You know, I've had many, many times that I've had people in my life that have had negative thoughts and things. And you've got to learn to just avoid that or communicate very effectively that you just don't want to have that negative in your life. And you also have to find a way to eliminate the people that don't align with your vision. Now, I'm not talking about friends and family, and I'm not talking about the idea that you would just cut people out of your life. But if people don't align with your vision and with what you're trying to accomplish in your life, then you need to limit that exposure that you have. And sometimes understand that some people, you know, they care about you, but they don't necessarily have the same vision and alignment of what you want. And so they can be a negative influence on you, even if they're not specifically being negative. And so learn to filter out the people that don't align with your vision and what you're trying to accomplish with the happiness for you and your family and your business. And also learn to eliminate the activities that don't support your goals and dreams. You know, so many of us feel like, well, we've got to, you know, take time to decompress and watch Netflix or do things that give us time to to have fun and balance out life. but what you don realize is that some activities are counterproductive to your goals and it very important that you identify that So remember this comment that your network is your net worth and maybe better said the network that you have is also your net life creation because that network is going to influence your life. The people you surround yourself with are going to determine the trajectory of your life and it doesn't matter whether they're positive or negative in the sense that whether you are being proactive or not, people are going to influence you whether you realize it or not, whether they're positive or negative, right? So be proactive and specific with who you surround yourself with. Have specific intent. One of the success principles that we fail to understand is that it's not just as simple as surrounding yourself with positive people or applying a success principle. You have to be specific with your intent and specific with your creation of your life. And this includes people in your life. Napoleon Hill, you know, really gives a great example or perspective of this idea of specific intent in his book, Think and Grow Rich, because many of us have heard of, for example, the idea of affirmations, something you would do to affect or grow your mindset on a daily basis, but we don't dig deep enough into the understanding of the principle of affirmations. You know, Napoleon Hill talks about the absolute need for persistence with your affirmations. He talks about persistence being the gateway to actually getting results from your affirmations. And so when we develop the persistence, that's when the affirmations will work. Well, many of us hear about, you know, having positive people in our life, but we don't go the step further to specifically orchestrate and architect the people that we want to have inside of our lives. And so I think that's something that I want to really encourage you to start doing throughout the week. And let me just kind of end with a couple of thoughts on why it's so important to have positive people in your life. One of the big, big benefits of successful or positive people in your life is belief transference. You know, if you've ever noticed when you're around positive people in your life, you gain their belief, their positivity, there's an energy, right? And there's a principle called belief transference because if you don't believe it yet, when you're around people, you'll kind of understand that and you've probably experienced it. But if you're around individuals that have success or have positivity, you can count on their belief until yours grows. You know, people that are optimistic, you can count on and use and leverage their belief until your life experience helps you to believe it yourself. And that's a huge, huge benefit. Another benefit of being around positive people is that there's a lot of experience You know successful positive people have experience in life and that experience can and help carry you through some of your own success and failures as well especially with positivity And being around their experience positive people will also help you to expand your vision And I know that you've been around those kind of people before where it seems like their vision is just a little bit bigger than yours, and when you're around them in that positivity, it'll rub off on you. And that's something that you need to value, and that's why you want to put positive people in your life. The other thing about positivity and optimism and positive people is indirectly you'll receive a lot of opportunities and doors that will open for you. Because when you're around these type of people, opportunities are attracted to individuals like that. And it's very important for you to stop basing your self-worth off other people's opinions. But you also have to start being proactive on how to surround yourself with people that will bring you more and more opportunity in your life. so find ways to guard your mind tightly against negative influences make it a decision that you're going to surround yourself with positive people that'll help to encourage you and push you towards your goals and your plans and your purpose and that's the strategy i want to kind of leave you with here today i want you to try to do this this week try to add one new positive influencer in your network today it doesn't matter you know if if it's uh someone that maybe you have to reestablish a connection with or somebody that is brand new. It might be someone online or it might be someone in person, but try to make a decision that you're going to add an individual to your network today and ongoing add more and more individuals, reach out to them, tell them that you want to start communicating with them, offer some value and express your appreciation constantly and your gratitude for their positivity and their, their, um, you know, role in your life because showing gratitude and appreciation is the best way to attract these types of individuals that are gonna help you into your life. If you do this, I think you'll start to see some major, major things shift in your life. If you're experiencing difficulties, surround yourself with positive people. If you're experiencing negativity, surround yourself with positive people. If you're having challenges, find that increased network of positivity and I know that it's gonna help you make a big difference in your life. That's my message for today. I want you to do me a favor and share this podcast. share this episode because I think that there's individuals out there that really need to hear this type of stuff and try to apply it in your life this week hit me up on the Daily Mastermind at Facebook or Instagram love to hear your feedback and I look forward to talking with you more this week once again this is George Wright III and this has been the Daily Mastermind have a great day

About the host
George Wright III, host of The Daily Mastermind

George Wright III

George Wright III is an entrepreneur, investor, and the host of The Daily Mastermind. Over more than two decades he has founded and scaled several multimillion-dollar companies and built a renowned seminar business that put some of the world's biggest names and brands on stage. With 25+ years across marketing, sales, and executive leadership, he's made a career of turning bold ideas into results — and momentum into lasting growth.

Today his mission is singular: empower driven entrepreneurs everywhere to master their mindset, unlock their potential, and live their ultimate destiny. Through The Daily Mastermind, George shares the Prosperity Principles and strategies that help people create massive change — in their business and in their life.

MORE ABOUT GEORGE