Association that matters!!

How many of us tend to assess a person on the basis of his/her close associates? At times, it is just not whom you are associated with but also whom you avoid associating yourself with. There was a small story that I heard long time back. Here it goes.
An eagles' egg that is placed under a prairie chicken hatched and the baby eagle scratching the dirt for seeds along with other chicken. The small eagle, not knowing its ancestors, survived with no problems. It flew for very short distances as a chicken but never tried longer distances. One day, it saw a bird flying in the open sky and was amazed of that act. Fellow chicken explained the poor eagle,"the bird is an eagle,an outstanding bird that can fly in the open sky for very long time and the same can never be possible for us because we are checken. Eagle with the chicken continued with that amazement forever without knowing its own abilities.
What does this story tell us? It is the association that matters most. It can so happen that you loose out to exhibit your natural skills with wrong association. It happened with an eagle and why not to you and me? A newly elected member of cricket team feels great to be around with the likes of Sachin and Dravid though he is not given an opportunity to perform. If you associate yourself with high performers, you may be a performer for yourself at sometime. Why do people want to join IIMs and other top B-schools? It is where you have people, who have undergone the rigorous process and proved to make a difference at every opportunity. Why do successful companies recruit people from top schools across INDIA? It is of course the same reason. If they have more stars, each one is competent in an area, even the low performers acquire the skills to reach the top. If you are with people who crib every time, you are most likely to start following that. One must be very analytical and critical in one’s own way while associating himself or herself with someone around. You can either be made or broken apart.