Who's in Your Room? - Rick Sapio (CEO of Mutual Capital Alliance, Inc.)

Rick Sapio is a lifelong entrepreneur, speaker, and a CEO. He’s also the seventh of a family of nine children. Watching his six older siblings go through the challenges of life before him, Rick realized that the people his siblings chose to surround themselves with seemed to determine how successful they became. This realization led Rick to the creation of a personal philosophy and it’s that philosophy he shares with us as he asks: Who’s in your room? Rick asks us to imagine our life as a room with one door. Anyone who gets through that door is with us forever. Who’s in that room with you? Are they people who share your core values and priorities and if not, why are they in that room? Rick believes we should employ, what he calls, the Doorman Principle. He says that we ought to have a bouncer at that door; a figure who prevents anyone who doesn’t completely align with our values from getting through because every problem we have starts when we let the wrong people in. We live in a ‘yes’ focused society, says Rick, but in order to be successful it’s important for us to say ‘no’ and restrict ourselves to the things and people that are aligned with our priorities. In order for the Doorman Principle to work, we need to know what our priorities are. Rick reminds us that knowing your values is vital to your success. True success, he says, is when you only do what aligns with your priorities. He encourages, us to "go hole up" somewhere and identify those things central to yourself and figure out your primary focus. Once you’ve identified those aspects, and started using them as a lens through which you make your decisions, you’ll find yourself making better decisions that start to compound the positivity in your life. Make a list of what’s important to you, says Rick, and hand it to your Doorman. You’ll soon find yourself in a room full of much better company.  This leads to better alignment with your values, more accountability, and better long term results. Listen to the conversation with Rick here: