Sustainable Excellence Xtras #129 - The Important Qualities of a Best Friend

What do you look for in a best friend?

Speaker Jim Rohn is reported to have said, "We are the average of the five people we spend the most time with."

In theory, Rohn's quote would mean that if you hang out with people who are intelligent, caring, and financially well off, then you would be intelligent, caring, and financially well off.

Conversely, if you spend time around people who are negative, condescending, and have a lot of drama in their lives, then you would be negative, condescending, and have a lot of drama in your life.

Most of us have friends, but how many of us have BEST friends?

Our friends will be there for us to help celebrate the good times, but best friends are there during the bad times as well.

Best friends love you enough to tell you the truth even if their honesty risks the relationship with you.

However, what do we usually do when people care enough about us to let us know we are making a mistake? We ostracize them and remove them from our sphere of influence.

Hopefully, we will come to our senses and forgive our friend for our unwillingness to appreciate their honesty.

We all need people with a courageous and forgiving friendship mindset. I once heard the following story about two friends traveling in the desert

Two friends were walking through the desert. At some point during the journey, they argued, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand “Today my best friend slapped me in the face”.

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him. After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone “Today my best friend saved my life”.

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, “After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now, you write on a stone, why?” The other friend replied “When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But, when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

Make sure you are surrounding yourself with people who make you better, but also be willing to forgive those when they make a mistake that strains the friendship.

Please check out the short video to learn more about the qualities of a best friend from one of America's most influential entrepreneurs. 

​Also, leave me a comment about your thoughts regarding the qualities of a best friend.