The Gift of Friendship in Leadership

A note to young leaders.

On friendship.

I came across this line recently and it made me smile: “Friends are God’s apology for relatives.”

Relatives are given to us and we have a duty to love them – though not always to like them.

Friends, by contrast, are gifted onto us. We don’t so much choose them as discover them.

CS Lewis once wrote that a friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another: “What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”

And even though we often say we “made a friend” – we can no more “make” a friend than we can make someone laugh at our jokes, love our music or share our ideals.

Friendship is not a decision, it’s a condition.

And I count this among the greatest joys and privileges of my life, that I work among so many good friends.

I wish this for you too – because friendships double the laughter and halve the load.