Crazy Italian or Guru of Guidance

Today was a unique day. It began fairly normal, struggling to get up in time for Evolution (8:30) at UCF. Then straight from school to the bike shop where I work as a sales person, as well as a mechanic if needed. I knew it was going to be a weird day, being Tuesday. I never really seem to get the hang of Tuesdays. Everyone at work seemed to be acting strangely, or maybe my perception was just messed up, it was Tuesday after all. I had this growing feeling since the day before infact, that working at this bike shop was a wast of my talents and time. I was feeling that I just wasn't doing what I was suppose to be doing, that there was somewhere else that I belonged. This was all turning itself over in my head when one of my co-workers asked me to help him install a bike rack on a customers car. I immediately picked up that the man we where helping out to his car was a little diffrent, even for Orlando bike store standards. From his immediate appearance you would assume him to be a dim witted construction worker, or a painter who had been around the fumes a little to much. And at first it seemed that this might be the case because he spoke slowly, and only when needed. In any case he did not seem to be a reliable source of knowledge, or even minor advise for that matter. When we got out to the car it was certain that he was not who he appeared to be. We began to talk and he appeared to be surprisingly intelligent. In his Italian accent he spoke with perfect grammar and intriguingly clever word choice. He spoke of the economy and his subjective projection of the stock market. His ideas and opinions where very well thought out and structured. He also spoke of guns more then once which made me a little nervous. Being out going and very people oriented, nervousness is not something that I show. I still considered him just some weird guy and truthfully he probably is just some weird guy. But the he gave us a few points of advise that really sunk to the core of me and hit on some of the issues that I was dealing with. He told us that everyone has a circle of people in which we associate with. Within this circle are all the people that we know family, friends and associates. His theory is that you should be making every person in your circle more successful and that every person inside that circle should be helping you become more successful. If someone in your circle does not live up to these standards then they should be removed from your circle. This is the same idea as the saying "you become the people that you associate with". Along the same line of thought he mentioned that in life its who you know that gets you far and where you want to be, as long as you are willing to put forth the work. This might sound trivial to you, and I have of course heard this said before but I guess I just needed to hear it at that exact second in my life because before then I never really got it. Its strange you know, I was begging to think that I finally understood all of the advise that every kid ignores when they are younger, and another chunk falls in my lap. It seems like life is like that though, you already know all of the strategy's and advises that you need to be successful but each lesson shows its true meaning in a moment of clarity. I think with each enlightenment we learn to pay attention to those that are wiser then us and to open our minds to advise we have naively taken for granted. Thank you crazy gun shooting Italian, your wisdom has effected me and i am ready to move forward.