One of the popular sayings of recent times is, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” I want to write a few things about this. For the past six years, I’ve been living alternately in Kaş, Antalya and in Girne. As you can imagine, in these two small coastal towns, it’s not exactly easy to find people who are on the same frequency as you. So how do we overcome this?
Changing our environment or raising its level—relatively speaking—might seem simple on paper, but in reality, it’s directly linked to one’s social and economic situation. Most of the time, there’s not much we can actually do about it. Very few of us have the luxury of choosing the people in our work or social environments. So I don’t want to bombard you with clichéd sayings. Instead, I’ll tell you what I do.
The solution is actually very simple: magazines. Since childhood, I’ve had a habit of buying magazines—starting with gaming magazines, which later evolved according to the direction of my personal interests. For the past 6–7 years, I’ve been reading only business magazines.
Why is this so important? We are the average of our environment, and we have no control over what our environment will be interested in or what its agenda will be. At this point, engaging with business magazines significantly affects your own agenda. Because at the end of the day, you realize that every topic you read in a business magazine is about building something, producing something, or striving for more.
Think about it: if you scroll through Instagram Reels for an hour, you’ll inevitably come across fake experts pushing the theme of “how to make money easily.” But in business magazines, you’re exposed to the narratives of people who are actually doing real work. This shifts your perception and confronts you with the reality that things can’t be achieved the easy way.
Let me end the piece with a few magazine recommendations. Harvard Business Review will definitely teach you something. Worst case, even if you don’t read anything else and just go through the case studies, you’ll still benefit. Fast Company is a quality magazine with quality writers. Start Up Magazine focuses on those coming from the bottom, and is written for them. And lastly, CEO Life—because knowing how to live is also important. This magazine, which explores how successful people shape their social lives, is incredibly eye-opening.
