Someone on Quora asked:
I recently got a job offer at Facebook and instead of being happy for me, some of the people I considered my closest friends stopped talking to me. Does this mean they’re not my friends?
I kid you not, but the moment one of them found out I got an offer she ran away and started crying, and has refused to talk to me since. We are college seniors and she doesn’t have post-college plans yet so she feels some anxiety on that front, but this can’t be the reaction of a true friend, can it?
This was my response:
I recently got a lot of followers on the internet. People stopped talking to me or blocked me on Facebook or even started to try to defame me publicly. Does that mean they’re not really my friends?
Yes.
Even though I went out of my way to help them when they needed help, taught them how to sell or run a business, shared memories together, laughs, good times, at the end of they day they were bitter that my life had improved and theirs didn’t.
They were just selfish people who were happy that I was on the same level I was with them, wanted to use me for what I had, yet at the time when my reality and my life changed for the better, they were out.
The funny thing is, I didn’t kick them out of my life. They kicked me out of theirs.
Success is a funny thing. They say the top is a lonely place. I never really understood why so many people said that until I experienced people backstabbing me or being jealous in my own life.
Don’t worry, as you become more and more successful, you will continue to lose friends in your life, or what I consider to be the fat on the meat. It’s okay though, as the ones who stick around will be the filet mignons, ribeyes and porterhouses. Yum!
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Originally posted on Quora.
Leonard Kim consults startups and writes books like The Etiquette of Social Media: How to Connect and Respond to Others in the World of Social Media