day 691: Stickiness of Friends

:There are "friends" who destroy each other, but a real friend sticks closer than a brother."

The technology world is awash in a new social network; Google+. I'm not really sure how many more social networks I need, but I have accepted my invitation to Google+ and I can see some advantages to the Circles and Streams. It is also interesting in that in this new social network I can now categorize my friends more so than in the past. The definition of friends continues to evolve and I can see that more and more of business will revolve around the concept of friendship. Friends are sticky. That means that if we can get friends involved or interested in the same things, then they are more likely to stick with something together. If we trust our friends more than others, then it makes sense that we would tap into those same people for recommendations, supports, guidance, etc. But, this demands an even further deepening and stratification of the definition of friend. I'm not sure who can truly define who is a friend or not better than each one of us individually, but it is certainly something for us to watch in our businesses, because if we can get our customers to tap into their friends for us, then we can see a new set of customers emerge.

In our personal, work, and spiritual lives, God calls on us to define our friends to an even deeper level. We are not to be the type of friends who would tear each other down through competition, envy or coveting. We as Solomon says, are to know that "a real friend sticks closer than a brother". That means, never turning way and always being there for each other. Sure, brothers may argue and not always see eye-to-eye, but they are always to come back to each other and be there when needed. We call ourselves brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to be sure that we are living up to that label and standard that comes with the definition set by Solomon. Today, let's think about our friends and check whether or not we are sticking with them.

Reference: Proverbs 18:24 (New Living Testament)