Know Your Friends

_{Photo by Chang Duong}

My dad will always tell us to be careful about the kind of people we make our friends and also the kind of things we tell those friends, because not everyone you call your friend is really your friend. Some of them don't really want to see you doing better than them. And what's even scary is that some of this friends don't know that they act that way until you actually start doing better than them, then the jealousy comes and there's trouble.

He told I and my siblings this during one of our Father and son talk and I've always carried that in my heart ever since, especially when I started to experience it myself.

Back in the day when I used to be active on sport betting, I'd always go to this friend of mine to share the good news with him whenever I won big. I didn't notice it at first, but whenever I told him that I had just won a huge amount of money, the expression on his face would change to a not-so-happy face and then he'd force a smile.

Then I noticed, so one day I had decided to know for sure if my friend doesn't like me winning or maybe I'm just being too suspicious. So I has gone to meet him and told him that I had won a particular amount of money, I saw the same expression on his face, but then I quickly told him that I was lying and had lost some amount of money instead.

I had said all of that while studying him carefully and I could swear on my life that the smile I saw on his face after I told him I had lost some money was one of the most genuine smile I've seen in my life. He started laughing about it and I joined him too in other to just play along but there and then, I realized that he's not someone I should be sharing any of my success stories with because he obviously isn't the kind of friend that would genuinely be happy for me when he hears that something good is happening to me and I honestly don't want to find out if he's the kind of person that would go an extra mile just to sabotage whatever good thing coming my way.

So people, always try to keep your success stories to yourself, especially if you're still waiting for that good thing to happen. But if you must tell someone, make sure it's the right person and not someone who doesn't want you to be ahead of them.