Creativity, Strategy, and Innovation

Friendship is a sacred commitment to trust and care for someone you hold in high esteem, whom you are not really expecting any reward from in return for the gift of your friendship. But here is the twist: when you initiate such a friendship, don’t seek people’s approval to be relevant or make life comprehensible to you. If you do so, you will live all your life in deep regret. Caroline Myss observes that “When you do not seek or need approval, you are at your most powerful.” But whenever you seek or need the approval of others to remain in a friendship, you are in the wrong friendship. At this point, people’s goal will be to toy with your emotions and leave you at their mercy for you to survive.The key to nurturing an enduring friendship is mutual care — consistently showing up for one another with empathy, commitment, trust, and respect. This means active listening, honest communication, and supporting each other through the highs and lows of life. It also involves shared experience of memorable events and forgiveness for mutual imperfections in order to strengthen the bond of friendship over time.