So I met Shaq yesterday.
I'll occasionally contemplate why on earth I pay over $200 monthly for a gym and then I'll remember when a legendary all star and his posse walks through the door looking for a good place to workout.
I had already been at Equinox for a couple hours. After a week-long trip to London and Stockholm, I've returned hungry for good gym workouts. I had left to run hills for a bit and was walking back into the gym with the plan to shower and leave to start my day. I see a massive hulk of a man walking up the steps from the other side. A part of me thinks it might be Shaquille O'Neil or at least someone relevant due to his sheer size but it didn't click until someone else asked him for a picture. I immediately stopped and asked for a selfie, cranking my neck to make eye contact.
Then, of course, I wasn't going to leave until I spoke with him. So my workout became twice as long and my workday was put on a back burner, this was once in a lifetime.
So I bumble around doing workouts I'm too tired to do. He looks over a few times which in my mind gives me the invitation to go up and chat, which I did.
What impressed me most about this eventful morning was the response of everyone else in the gym. They looked for a bit but then got on with their workouts and days. This is the other reason that reminds me why I love Equinox and, further, SF. Surround yourself with high caliber people. Do so by joining high caliber gyms, clubs, meetups, grocery stores, coworking spaces, etc. Go places where exponential people hang out. Doing so puts yourself in a high-frequency environment in which a celebrity is simply an equal. And if that becomes the new baseline, that's the standard you subconsciously fight to meet. Humans like equality. And if you're a remotely observant person, your surroundings impact your actions. Seek exponential surroundings, get exponential output.