Would you like to get a quick glimpse of what your financial future is going to look like?

This isn’t magic or fortune telling. It’s simply cause and effect:

Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.

Show me your peers and I’ll show you your prospects.

How is that possible? Because of the Law of Association (see Proverbs 13:20). This law states, you are an average of the top 5 voices you hear the most.

If 7 of your closest friends are broke, then chances are you’ll be the 8th.

If your 5 closest friends are growing in their business, chances are, you’ll be growing too.

What do the top 5 voices in your life tell you about what your financial future might look like?

If you wouldn’t be happy with that possible future, then what you want to work on is what I call “Developed Association.”

Developed Association is when you recognize the power of proximity by having a profitable peer group. You put yourself in an environment that elevates the experience you seek. You actively look for places that will hold you to high expectations. When you are failing to live up to who you believe you’re called to be, then your peers keep you to a higher standard and pressure you to stretch your mind and faith in God to see what is possible for your life and business.

The type of people who seek to associate with others who understand wisdom, culture, character, and accomplishments are successful people. Surrounding yourself with successful people will rub off on you and influence you like osmosis.

You’ll want to start conversations with people who have the results you want.

When I began recognizing that I had outgrown a few of my first mentors and early environments, I realized I didn’t want to live long term with the results they had. I wasn’t satisfied and felt limited with my resources, support, influence, impact, and scarcity of time that I had.

The plans or methods I was following to reach people and support workers were not getting the results I wanted.

What should I do? How could I develop an association with people who had more of the results I wanted?

I attended events, and I met mentors. I wanted to learn to be a medical missionary. I desired to understand health laws, how the body works, and then teach these life-changing concepts to others.

I ended up meeting a friend, Christopher Smith, who was willing to mentor me when I was a teenager. As he traveled around the nation giving health lectures, he’d take me with him and let me speak at the various events he spoke at. I learned more about health being mentored by a medical minister and actually serving people than I would have by just sitting in a class reading textbooks.

Through my new mentor, I got connected to the leaders of an organization doing a big health series based on biblical principles in Washington, DC. They had seen my videos online and knew I had been traveling and speaking for several years by then, so they gave me a call inviting me to go out to DC and help. During this health campaign, there were going to be experienced medical missionaries, documentary videographers, successful speakers, and many people with varied unique talents. When they talked about who all was involved, it sounded like something I would be interested in. I was excited about the opportunity.

When I came to Washington, D.C., we taught a private school over in Virginia how they could reach the senators and the members of Congress in Washington D.C. through health and solving practical problems. We also taught biblical lessons to the people we came in contact with on Capitol Hill.

It was a life-transforming experience. The style of leadership there was unlike anything I’d ever seen. I met the first person in my life who created Win-Win situations. Every decision made benefited everyone involved. At first, I felt weird. I almost felt out of place. The abundance mindset and the leadership they had was not what I was used to. This example taught me how your success doesn’t mean my failure.

When I met them, I saw their love for Christ. They wanted to serve Him.

I got the opportunity to be in a truck one-on-one with the ministry director. I told him there’s something different about this organization. This ministry had resources that I’d never seen before.

I asked him, “Why do you have so many resources? You have great, talented people. You have the financial and social support of successful individuals. You have a vividly clear vision and direction. You have rallied together so many different types of people here. I’ve never seen anything like it. What is different about you? How can you do this? You’re in full-time ministry, right? How do you have so many resources financially when everyone I’ve ever known in ministry is very poor? What’s the difference?”

While we were driving in the truck he took me throughout Washington, DC, to the home where he grew up. He explained to me how he came from a family of politicians and how prosperity has been prominent throughout his family for many generations. He also used to own a multi-million dollar construction business in Washington DC. He further informed me how many of the successful leaders who work with him in ministry were first successful in owning their own businesses or married to a successful business owner. He showed me how all of the skills they learned to succeed in business were 100% transferrable to succeed in ministry. He was what I would call a millionaire missionary. He had the experience and mindset of a millionaire who was on a mission to make the world a better place.

Then he revealed to me something that would change my life forever. He introduced me to the fact that there are biblical financial laws, and when you obey these financial laws, then finances are a result. When you disregard them (even unintentionally), then financial consequences are the result also.

This was the first time I had ever heard something like this before. I asked him, “Do you mean to tell me that there are financial laws I don’t know about? How do I find out about these financial laws?” Ever since I had that conversation back in 2015, I have been studying the Word of God, searching for what the biblical financial secrets are. He shared that he couldn’t explain them all to me right now but went on and explained the Law of Association in indirect ways.

Next, he drove me to a Country Club which was not far from his house. He told me this was the country club that his family was a part of. It costs $250,000 a year to be a part of it. In my mind, I was thinking 250,000…! Why would anyone possibly value being a part of a membership or association for a quarter of a million dollars?

Maybe you, as you’re reading, are wondering that too.

I asked my millionaire mentor. He told me, “You have to understand that wealthy people value relationships. Wealthy people value the associations they have. The wealthy value relationships more than they value money.”

Maybe country club members are looking to find people they can learn from. Poor people only take advice from those who are as poor as them or poorer. But wealthy people only take advice from those who are as wealthy as them or more. Investing in high-level fellowships, masterminds, country clubs, or inner circle coaching programs is a habit of the wealthy.

At a high-level fellowship like this country club was an opportunity where my mentor could find a whole group of people he could connect with who are at a similar level of life. He could meet other successful business owners and leaders in Washington, DC, who “have their hair down,” so to speak and just relax or play golf with them and ask them profitable questions. You can associate with someone successful, and in one conversation, there could be a potential to generate a $10 million deal in business.

It gave me more to think about than my 20 year old mind was ready for at the time. Invest 250,000 for a year? Think about it. If you knew that by investing $250,000 on the front end, you’d make $10 million on the back end, would you do it? Absolutely! It would be a no brainer.

Since learning and applying these Financial Laws, I’ve taken the opportunity to invest in joining a $155,000 mastermind myself. It won’t be the last high level fellowship I intend to invest in either. Today, I know from experience how valuable one Developed Association can be with the right people and the right mentor.

The wealthy are not looking at it as an expense but as an investment. The poor focus on the price, but the wealthy focus on the payoff. The poor consider primarily the cost, but the wealthy consider primarily the compensation. My millionaire mentor explained how our associations influence our decisions, our lives, and all our results. That is the main reason why they’re willing to invest in access to mentorships and relationships.

While most entrepreneurs have heard about ROI (return on investment), almost no one is talking about ROR (return on relationship). I believe the latter is far more interesting to me, because there’s no limit to what can be accomplished when we learn to value our strategic partnerships and leverage other people’s resources in win-win scenarios.

If you want to learn how to become a magnet to successful, influential people so you can be surrounded by quality folk that will hold you to a high standard, connect you with the people in their networks, and open you up to greater opportunities, then grab a free copy of my new bestselling book “I Want a Mentor… Now What Do I Do?” at IWantaMentorBook.com.