Succes often drives friends apart

Success often drives friends apart When people close to us succeed in their endeavors, we as humans require a “logical” explanation why we were not the successful ones!

Do you know how it feels to be jealous or perhaps even envious of your friend?

Figure out what it is that bothers you and get rid of the problem.

The foundation of friendship is that you are each other’s equal and that balance is shifted when one party is successful while the other is not.

Many successful entrepreneurs have said that the more success they achieve, the fewer friends they feel they have.

Human beings have fundamental difficulties with handling success—in particular, the success of others. We accept that strangers are successful, but we just don’t like to see our brother, old friend, or former classmate succeed.

Success among our closest friends is often more problematic. Success comes in many forms. It might be having a new cool job, losing a lot of weight, or finding a new boyfriend/girlfriend (while you might still be single after searching for a partner for a long time).

Jealousy is more frequently seen between two friends than between two people who don’t know each other.

When someone with the same background as yourself (for example, an old classmate) is successful, you will often feel more unhappy about it than if the person in question was a stranger.

The worst thing is if an old classmate who wasn’t even smarter than you becomes successful. This situation is almost more than we can handle.

As long as you are generally happy on your friend’s behalf, feeling a little bit jealous is okay. Your reaction just shows that you would like to achieve something similar. It can motivate you to reach the same achievement as your friend.

However, if you feel envious, you are on the wrong track. Feeling envious means that you have low self-­‐esteem and might feel tempted to talk badly about the successful person either face-­‐to-­‐face or, even worse, behind his back.

Where does jealousy come from?

Competition: Envy stems from competition between two people.

Insecurity about your own abilities: If a person feels 100% certain about his own abilities and qualities, he will never feel jealous.

Being in need: If someone is in need, he will more often feel jealous when a person close to him experiences significant financial success.

Be bigger than that! Allow yourself to be inspired by successful people, and find out what you can learn from them. Be proud of your friends, and don’t try to use their success as an explanation for your own lack of success.

Success is not a limited resource that will deplete because other people become successful. There is plenty of success out there for all of us!