Surround yourself with Good People

A few weeks ago we had some Jewish techie guys visiting from California for dinner on a Friday night. They were super nice and also super smart. They had all gone to fancy shmancy prep schools which led them to even fancier shmancier Ivy League colleges. They are now in the process of developing a really cool App with the guy who designed the game of Tetris (who remembers Tetris? :).

One of the guys was a mathematician and was really excited about the fact that he was getting married on 3-14-15 which apparently is Pi. I found that cute.

Now, having these brains sitting around my table, I just had to ask them... how did their schooling and college experience help them get to where they are today.

Their unanimous answer? 

Its not WHAT you know, its WHO you know. 

Hmmmmmmmm. 

Basically, they told me that while they learnt a lot at their fancy College, none of their classes actually helped them with what they are doing now. What did help them was being around like minded, smart people who connected them with other like minded, smart people which enabled them to develop this great team to work together and develop this App.

They then added that if you want to become a doctor or a lawyer, you clearly can't just hang around doctors and lawyers. But unless you have a clear idea of what you want to do, the whole Ivy League College experience merely networks you with well connected, smart, like minded people as yourself.

Now fast forward a few weeks to this past Shabbos morning as I was drinking my coffee on the couch. All of a sudden I got a really sharp stomach pain. I went to lay down in my room when I was suddenly paralyzed with pain in my stomach. I sent one of my kids to get my husband who upon seeing me double over in pain called 911.

The paramedics arrived and did their thing and told me I needed to go to the hospital.

It just so happened that a good friend of mine dropped off her 2 daughters to play. They are 10 and 11 and my kids adore them. When these girls are here, I do not see my kids for hours. We also happened to have 3 good friends spending Shabbos with us so going to the hospital with my husband, I knew my kids were in good hands.

As I was leaving, I saw 2 more friends pulling up to my house, one ran up to the ambulance saying, "Don't worry about your kids, we will all take care of them, just get better!"

Thank G-d, we got to the hospital and whatever needed to be taken care of got taken care of and I was feeling much better.

After Shabbos, friends came to pick us up and bring us home.

I walked into my house to find all my kids in PJ's and sound asleep in their beds.

And while this entire experience gave me a lot to think about, it brought me back to that converation with those Ivy Leaguers on that Friday night.

It really is a good and smart thing to surround yourself with like minded people. With good people. Because that is what we do. We are very blessed to have a lot of very good people in our lives. And our kids see this and feel it. We surround ourselves with positive, healthy, good people. And when the going gets tough, we have these amazing people who come through for us. Hashem sent them all to our house that Shabbos because He knew we needed them to be there.

Pirkei Avos says "aquire for yourself a friend" and "stay away from wicked people". It's that easy.

Wishing you all a wonderful week filled with health and goodness,

Always,