The True Test of Friendship

A note to young leaders.

Take great care before you call someone a “friend”.

A friend is not a friend until the relationship has been tested. Until then you are only acquaintances, colleagues – no matter how much time you’ve spent together.

A friendship is not measured by the time it has endured, but by the distance it has travelled.

Colleagues aren’t against you, they’re just for themselves. Friends are for you, they have your back. Colleagues will desert you when it’s expedient, friends do not.

Most people believe that friendship thrives best in swimming pools and on golf courses. It just ain’t so.

Friendships thrive best when they are tested. And the best way to test a friendship is in the struggle, the cut-and-thrust, the sacrifice of a common endeavour.

It follows therefore that you have an opportunity to form your deepest friendships at work, provided you all stay together for long enough and the culture encourages it.

And the best thing about the friendships that form at work is that they often form in clusters. How often are your best friends also best friends with one another?

Friendships are the grand prize of life. Relationships really matter.