If you were to die right now, who would come to your funeral?

I know this is not a very positive statement to make considering this is meant to be a Daily Motivational. And I am sure that the last thing you want to think about is death. But today I want to address the subject of your circle of influence.

How many people do you know that even remember your name? If you were to make contact with an old friend or acquaintance, would they remember you? Or would they scratch their head and say,

“Your face looks familiar but I can't say I really remember you.”

What kind of influence do you have on the lives of other people? This is very important if you want to succeed either in business or in ministry, because both of them involve other people.

If you don't influence people; if people don't even remember who you are or anything about you, then how can you possibly have any kind of influence in their life? How could you possibly succeed in ministry or in business?

You see every person has what is known as a circle of influence. From you at the center there are those that are closest to you, like immediate family and friends, relatives and acquaintances.

Then you get business associates, and the circle gets bigger and bigger. And the bigger the circle gets, the less contact you actually have with people.

Now they have proved statistically that the total number of people that can be in your circle is 150. That is the maximum that you could work with in a group and relate to without losing contact.

How big is your circle of influence and how many people even know your name? How can you improve this, because if you want to succeed in business, you are going to have to improve it?

You are going to have to do a whole lot better. There will be a lot more people who know who you are, who love you and admire you and who are associated with you in some way. So the question is,

“What does it take to get people to remember you?”

Now I could go into a big philosophical or psychological discussion. Psychologists love to dig into these things and give you big complicated methods and principles that nobody can even remember or understand.

2 Words to Remember

I have two simple words that you have heard over and over again. And those two simple words will give you the key to getting people to remember you in a good way.

What are those two words? It is the two ways of expressing what is in your spirit: words and actions.

I want to share a Scripture from Proverbs 22:11. Solomon said:

To the person that loves a pure heart, through the charm of his speech, the King will be his friend.

Wow, can you imagine being friends with the king.

Tell me, how many friends do you have who are in high places? How many people that are big names out there could you call your friends?

What will it take to do that? The charm of your speech and the purity of your heart will.

You see if your heart or your spirit is pure, what you express forth from your spirit in words and actions will affect other people. It will influence them positively and will draw them to you that you will become like a magnet.

What is it that makes people want to become friends with you, or makes you want to become friends with somebody else?

It is two simple things. The way they treat you and the way they speak to you.

Think about it. You want to be around people who treat you well; who don't treat you badly. And you want to be around people who speak pleasant, positive words to you.

Change How You Treat People

It is very simple. If you want to increase your circle of influence, all you need to do is to change the way you speak to people and the way you treat them. That can be a whole big subject on its own.

You could go with the old concept of the golden rule which Jesus gave us. He said that we should treat other people the way we want them to treat us. We need to speak to other people the way we want them to speak to us.

But actually it doesn't take much. All you need to do is speak positive, uplifting words and be thoughtful and kind to other people. Be sensitive to their needs.

So today I want you to try this project. As you go out and you meet people and make contact with them, I want you to remember these two simple principles: words and actions.

I want you to give this a try. To every person that you meet today, I want you to say something good and uplifting and do something kind and thoughtful.

If you do that you will find that it doesn't take long, and you will begin to develop a circle of people who admire and respect you.

Then when it comes time for you to launch your ministry or your business, or get going on a project that involves other people, you will have a whole big circle of people ready to take part in your launch. They will be ready to help you in it and to spread things around to their circle of influence.

This is why the circle of influence is so important. Because you see to do business all you need to do is to find people out there that have a big circle of influence.

If each person has a fully-fledged circle of 150 people, 10 people is all you need and you have got 1 500 contacts.

Do you want to make money in your business? Do you want to get a lot of sales and develop good clients who will support you? Find people who have a good circle of influence.

Before you can do that however, you must start by having a circle of influence yourself. Don't try and reach the masses. Don't think,

“Well if we could just reach thousands and millions of people and get sales.”

Why don't you start with a handful of people that you can work with? Then make it your goal in the years that lie ahead to get a circle of influence of 150 people.

It is going to take you that long to develop a circle of influence, where you could sit and write down 150 names of people that you know and people that know you.

And if you were to call one of these people on the phone or send them an email, they would know who you are and they would respond immediately.

That should be your goal in business. If you can start with that circle of influence yourself, just imagine how your business will take off as you begin to launch into the market place; as you begin to reach out through those people who respect you and that you have influenced already.

Lift People Up

So give it a try today. Go out and have a bit of fun with it. For every person you meet, before you meet them think to yourself,

“What can I say to this person that will be good and uplifting?”

Give them a compliment. Say something nice that will make their day. Maybe give them a gift. You can do something kind and show your interest in them.

It doesn't actually take a lot and you will see people just coming to life. Like water on a flower that is wilting and dying, you will suddenly see them spring to life. You can get a great kick out of it and have real fun with it.

The wonderful thing is suddenly you will have all the friends in the world, and everybody will think you are the most wonderful person. I don't know about you, but I think I would like to have a lot more friends.

Why don't you go give it a try? Tomorrow I will share about another principle that is very important if you want to succeed in business.