What is the basis for Friendship?
Is it based on what you get out of a relationship? Or what you put into the relationship?
Does it depend on what it cost you financially? Emotionally?
How much of Friendship is reflected in the depth of getting to know another person at a heart level? To share private details of life with another not shared with the public. In other words, the transparency to be yourself and let the other person be who God made them to be.
Is it measured by the amount of time you are willing to share with another individual?
Where does trust intersect with Friendship?
How many close Friends can we have at a time?
Are there levels of Friendship? If so, how do you measure the level of a Friendship?
A Friend recently got me to consider: what is the connection between Friendship and business?
As I reflected on this question it became clear to me: I only want to do business with Friends. I believe it is a real Christian Advantage. There tends to be more trust. You tend to be transparent more readily. You accomplish more in less time, because you can count on your Friends to “Do What They Say They Will Do.” They are willing to be held accountable.
This then led me to reflect on, “What is the basis of business?”
Business tends to be focused on the financial transactions a person is willing and able to pay for a benefit they are expecting to receive.
Or put in reverse: the price a person places on providing a service or product to another person, organization, or community.
Does this imply business is financially based and Friendship is relationship based? Thus, should business and friendship seldom coexist?
I believe it is common knowledge, the volume of business an individual or company can attract is based on the quality, time, and cost of the product or service. And it is not possible to provide products of the highest quality in the least amount of time at the lowest cost. And you can accomplish two of the three, but never all three and stay in business for long (unless you are a monopoly).
Thus, most successful companies focus on selling based on the quality of their product or service, and providing it in a timely manner.
Meanwhile, customers often base their purchasing decisions on price.
Getting back to Friendship, when does Friendship help in business? How does business interfere with Friendship? Can Friendship intersect (coexist) with business?
I like (prefer) to do business with Friends, whether I am on the receiving or giving side. The more we do business with one another, the more we build community. We see this a lot with immigrants. They rely extensively on one another for whom they do business with. This leads to buying local as much as possible.
I like to believe I am less likely to be taken advantage of when doing business with Friends. Which I believe is true, as long as they really are Friends.
