Entrepreneurs have challenges that you can’t talk to ‘regular’ folks about.

You go to breakfast with your buddies. Scott says “I got first place in a fishing tournament.” Tom says “I just got promoted to assistant manager.” You can’t say, “I just finished a huge promotion and sold $500,000 of stuff in two days.”

If you have to pay $100,000 to the Tax Man and government muckety-mucks are all over you, your regular friends will probably say ‘Poor Bill. He made so much money he has to pay lots of taxes. That’s just terrible. Like, cry me a river.”

(They won’t know a tax guy who can help you, either.)

If you have to fire an employee because he can’t sell, or if he poisons the morale of your team, or if you’re against mandatory free maternity leave with pay for 1 year for everyone who can get pregnant or impregnate someone, a lot of your ‘regular friends’ will secretly harbor resentment because you’re not ‘doing your duty’ as one of the world’s ‘more fortunate’ citizens.

If your time is way too valuable for you to be mowing your lawn or vacuuming your floor, sometimes you’re made to feel like a snooty aristocrat. You’re not. You’re just stewarding your time wisely.

And if you made a million dollars last year, if clients and promoters fly you all over the world and you just finished your book tour, regular Joes won’t believe that in the other departments in your life, you carry the exact same heartaches and frustrations that everyone else carries.

That’s what they mean when they say “It’s lonely at the top.” It doesn’t HAVE to be lonely, but unless you build bridges and relationships, you’ll probably feel alone in your success.

Your clients might think you’re superhuman, but you still need friends who know you’re not.

That’s why you need close connections to people who’ve gone ahead of you.

Remember this: Your income 5 years from now will be average of your 5 closest colleagues. Ain’t nothing’ wrong with having regular friends, but you need to surround yourself with people who stretch your imagination and your aspirations. Flesh and blood human beings who understand the battles you fight.

That’s why I host Roundtable. That’s why I have Private Client Group.

Cuz no man is an island.

Perry Marshall

About the Author

Perry Marshall has launched two revolutions in sales and marketing. In Pay-Per-Click advertising, he pioneered best practices and wrote the world's best selling book on Google advertising. And he's driven the 80/20 Principle deeper than any other author, creating a new movement in business.

He is referenced across the Internet and by Harvard Business Review, The New York Times, INC and Forbes Magazine.