-I once had a friend tell me, " You show me five of your closest friends and I'll tell you who you are."  That's some powerful stuff.  Association is one of the keys to becoming successful in anything you do.  If you want to be a great poker player, you should hang around people that are at your level that are constantly improving (iron sharpens iron) and also, associate yourself with the best players around.  If you want to be rich, you should hang around people that are where you want to be and people that are on their way there.  If you wanna be good at skateboarding, skate with someone better than you and it'll challenge you to get better.

-We have to be very careful on who we are spending our time with.  People will either pull you forward or bring you down.  With association, it's not just with friends.  It's basically what you are inputing in your mind.  What you watch on TV, what music you listen to, what you read, and who you hang around with got you to where you are now.  Even in scripture it says to "Gaurd your Heart."  I can tell what type of input goes in a person with what they talk about the most.  Im not saying to ditch all of your friends.  It all depends what you goals are what price would you pay for them.

-some of us might say "but im the best poker player among all my friends" LOL.  how am i gonna hang out with the best players when i don't personally know any.  You can associate with them through training sites like this one.  Stackem has the best training podcasts out there.  A good idea is when you're driving in the car to sacrifice Jigga and listen to a poker podcast because it'll help take you toward your goals instead of away.  You can X out of Facebook and watch some training videos when you have the time.  If you're part of a site and not participating in the forums, you're missing out on a lot.  Even if you don't agree with anyone, it's great practice to really focus on a hand and to break it down.  There's even more insight when there's disagreement.  I posted some hands where it was like 5 pages long with great discussion.  All the tools are there and there's no excuse.  If you wanna hang out with Phil Galfond and pick his brain, read his blog and watch the videos he put out when he was with BFP.  You get my point.  GL

*EDDIE*