You Are Who You Follow

“Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are.”
~Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin

“A man is known by the company he keeps”
~Aesop’s Fables: The Ass and His Purchaser

“Expose yourself to angry mobs of uninformed, easily manipulated protesters and you’ll want to join a mob…
Expose yourself to anger and you might get angry too.
Expose yourself to people making smart decisions and you’ll probably learn how to do it as well.”
~Seth Godin, Expose Yourself…

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Check out the Tweeple on the left. Those are folks I follow on Twitter who are also following me—so says FriendOrFollow.

Aren’t they a motley group? But they have one thing in common:

They are and do the many things I want to be and do.
And nothing I don’t want to.

I intentionally don’t follow people who are perpetually angry or who cut people down. I don’t follow whiners or cynics or naysayers or folks without a purpose or a plan. There are plenty of ‘em out there, and some are in disguise, but I root them out. And I cut them off.

I follow people who are mostly happy and go out of their way to be kind and to help. They complain about off days with a smile and go Doh! at their rookie moves. They’re fun and funny and live their lives on purpose. They play hard and work hard. They plan their work and work their plans. They’re an overabundance of awesome.

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Not that they’re perfect, because they’re not…they’re way past perfect: They’re regular folks doing fun, cool, interesting, and altogether irregular things. They make mistakes and they have success—usually in that order—and they do it again and again and again.

They’re writers, artists, organizers, and world travelers.

They’re musicians, designers, developers, and startups.

They’re knitters and spinners and all-around crafters.

They’re CEOs, employees, solopreneurs, and mom & pop shops.

They’re foodies, bakers, money-makers, caretakers, and the real people behind cool companies.

They’re geniuses, trailblazers, pathfinders, and smartasses.

They dream stuff up and plan it out and dig in their heels and get it done.

And any time of the day (or the late, late night) I can check Twitter and be reminded that I can do and be anything. Anything at all.

They honor me with their followship.

And it’s an honor to be among them.