How many of us actually spend time learning about the people we have placed around us. President Elect Obama, has stated that he has read a book based on the cabinet Lincoln built, that was made up of Lincolns rivals. Lincoln placed around him people that would not be yes men, and it seems that Obama will be doing the same things. In many ways this could be great, and then at times this could be bad, due to the fact that tempers seem to explode sometimes.

How many of us place people on our lives that do not see the world as we do? How many of us, have in our personal cabinet those who will only yes us rather than telling the truth. Many of us are so dependent upon having friends stroke our ego's rather than having people that will keep us on our toes. There needs to be balance in our lives, a balance that keeps us hungry to the things that we need to keep focused on, rather than those that will laugh behind our backs when things go to hell.

The need for the right people in our lives is very key to how far we go in life. If we stay in our comfort zone for to long everything and everyone will pass us by. However, as the saying goes, keep your enemies close, some of us are so lost in ourselves that we do not understand that the best way to stay in the know is by have those you do not trust, as the ones that you speak to the most. In the future there will be a segregation of information, not of color, meaning those that stay informed will be those that will have access to the things needed to move forward in this life.

Many people can not understand that you do not need those who will agree with you all the time, you need those who can tell you to your face that you are wrong, and at the end of the day, the two or three or how every many there is, go out to lunch. The key to success is not having a team of yes men, but having a team of rivals that will not hesitate to tell you what they think. This is the key to networking, and the key to even your personal branding.

If we are going to be successful in the future now dawning, we must be able to learn the things that were alien to use just a few weeks ago, we need to understand that rivals are not the problem, the problem is the fear that our person has about the unknown, about having yes men around us all day to stroke our egos. The growth of humanity is its ability to listen to all voices and still be an individual in a team of rivals, each person striving to be better than the other.