To Flee Or Stay In Unproductive Friendships Is Your Duty

Do the friendships you have cause positive economic flows toward or away from you?

Just like we have a true north and a generally accepted north, we have a true purpose for our existence and also that one thing others have purposed for us. A saying that recently circulated on WhatsApp went something like this: "If you are within a group of friends that don't do business with you, it's time you changed your circles".

People don't get to know so much about you for nothing. There is always something up their sleeves. And it cannot be that something is permanently brewing, for no pregnancy is permanent. Many times, it is something around you that they are after. It must materialise into something meaningful or end.

What you set out to achieve and what actually materialises may never be fully within our span of control, but who we chose to associate with is well within our domain. Are you associating with people who repeatedly and mercilessly betray you behind your back or people who go out of their way for you?

What does it mean when someone you've known for long asks you out for lunch when it is very clear to you that this person has always taken your patience with them for granted? Put another way, this person, behind your back, leads the hate campaigns against you and is the pivot around whom the cogs of jealousy, destruction and deceit, converge into a perfect wheel that is always ready to roll over any good in or from you.

When that call arrives, do you entertain the gesture or do you outrightly ignore it? Many people know that it is wrong to repeatedly expose themselves to haters but FOMO—Fear Of Missing Out, grips them because these manipulative characters know how to press your weakness buttons.

It is fine to want something but if you are not a demonstrated priority to someone, why make them your priority? And more so, if it is always about their selfish agendas against you, why help nourish their evil acts?

The world has 7 billion people worth exploring for friendships and business dealings. It's time to let go of those who've said or done 7 billion things against you. You will be Ok.

As you recalibrate, decide if it is worth your while to make any visible statements about cutting links, or to simply play the gentle card until the message gets home. But make no ceremonies of it, for greater things lie ahead and you must move on.

Until recently, I was one loyal friend to many. I found myself staying in groups that no longer needed me in any form—physical, digital or by any other means available. This happened when money challenges manifested loudly, and I faded away with the mists of time. They individually attempted to seek me out, but these were only purposed at lobbying my help quietly, they having suffered from Covid-related downturns. Call it the irony of friendships. I call it the agony of false friendships.

On occasion, the gang uses different members to reach out with false business proposals, and at times, I have led them on in this journey of deceit knowing too well when they are about to alight. Their master will show up where you hang out like they were waiting for someone else.

But the conversation begins to sound familiar and the all-caution mode automatically takes over. This master, it turns out, has been eating from a cookie jar that is not theirs and always tries to find out how much you know, for if you do, it can be disastrous for them. And I have known of it for years and done nothing about it and given out no clue until now as I write about it.

And it's not money I am talking about. Something forbidden. I keep watching how this master works so hard to keep me in the dark about something I already know of so well. When you make someone feel like a genius they keep thinking you are a fool, and they treat you as such. But I assure you, theirs is a fool's paradise.

But this blog is about matters of business, so, let's conclude that in 2022, call a spade a spade and stay true to your true north lest others divert you to a false north. If a cloud has no rain for your field, it had better pass fast. Get on with your true purpose and thrive without friendly enemies enjoying your welcome. Wakwende kabisa.