BUSINESS FRIENDS, unlike most friendships, are never in constant flux, no matter how good or bad the business relationship may be. When the business relationship turns sour though, business friends tend to be less than happy. They aren’t sure exactly when business is good for both of you, even when it seems like it. You probably have great business friends, but sometimes you just can’t do enough for them. When that happens, you’re much less likely to get the benefit of good business, despite your close relationship with them.
Business friendships are a great example of how you can fall into bad habits if you depend too much on your friends for your happiness. There are some things that friends can’t really help you with, after all. When those things become more important than the friendship itself though, you’re in trouble.
It’s easy to make business friendships work. If you both love what you do and are motivated by it, you will find it easy to be your best at what you do. It isn’t hard to put in the time to work on your relationships. That’s why it’s also so easy to make mistakes and mess up your friendships. It’s not uncommon for some business friends to try to push you further than you want to go.
That leads to the second problem that occurs with many business owners: they can start to think of themselves as “fake friends” because they don’t know any better. As business owners, we tend to want to forge relationships with people in our business circles. We want to be their friend, but we don’t really want to be anyone’s friend. We want to forge our own relationships, even though we know it’s a sham. Because we don’t want to be labeled as someone who fakes friendships, we sometimes try to fake it. Sometimes that requires us to lie a little bit.
Some people try to go the extra mile, lying about being friends with every person they meet, including their boss. In other words, they tell their lie as if it were true. This is one of the biggest problems with fake business friendships: the truth can get hurt. And because the lies keep coming, over again, eventually the friendship becomes something that’s just not there.
There are some things you can do to fix this problem. For starters, you need to stop trying to forge business relationships with anyone you meet. You need to learn how to respect them enough to let them know that what you’re doing is an investment in your future, not their present. You also need to make sure you have real friends in business. These are real people who are not trying to put you in a box and take advantage of you.