Working with great people makes you great; you learn a lot and it also gives you the experience and confidence... — Nas

Working with great people makes you great; you learn a lot and it also gives you the experience and confidence to move on with your own career.

Author: Nas

Insight: The people around you genuinely shape who you become—not in some mystical way, but through a kind of daily osmosis. When you're working alongside someone who's thoughtful, skilled, or ambitious, you pick up their habits before you even realize it. You notice how they handle a problem, how they talk to clients, what they prioritize. It's learning without the friction of a textbook. But here's what often gets overlooked: this effect works in both directions. Surrounding yourself with great people doesn't just make you better at your job—it quietly builds your confidence in a way that's hard to manufacture alone. You start believing you belong in bigger rooms because you've already been in them, working alongside capable people. That experience becomes portable. When you eventually move on, you're not just leaving with skills; you're leaving with proof, felt in your bones, that you can operate at that level. The flip side? Staying too long in the wrong environment can quietly erode that confidence, no matter how much raw talent you have. The company you keep becomes the version of yourself that's possible. It's maybe the most practical argument for being strategic about where you work early on—not for the title or the money, but for the invisible curriculum of working next to people who are genuinely good at what they do.