Four Quarters or 100 Pennies? [i]
“What
will you accomplish in the next ten years?
The instructor posed that question in a management seminar nearly forty
years ago. We all gave the usual and
expected answers. We younger managers
spoke of promotions to vice-president, gaining a patent to cure an exotic disease,
or writing the definitive textbooks about plant management. More seasoned members of the seminar had
already achieved those goals and spoke of running large enterprises,
influencing legislatures, or passing on their expertise to the likes of
us. One manager stood out. His goal was simple: have five good friends
before he died. That seemed odd to me at
the time, yet I still remember that afternoon
Social
media alters our definition of friend.
How many “friends” do you have on Facebook? People ask us to “friend” them? Most of my friends on Facebook aren’t really
friends. They’re acquaintances. I wish Facebook would let us acquaintance
people, instead of friending them. Why
can’t we ask people to acquaintance us? It
would be fun to see who has the longest list of acquaintances or how many of us
have mutual acquaintances.
I’ve
met thousands of people over the years, worked closely with hundreds of others,
and enjoyed the company of many. A few of
us became close friends. We still
are. A few have passed. Of those that remain, some are nearby, others
across the country. Some of us have the
same political convictions and others diametrically opposed. Some are affluent, some on the edge. It doesn’t matter if you’re friends.
Growing
up in a small town made it easy to make friends. Schools were small, churches were close-knit
communities, youth groups plentiful, and everyone knew each other. They also knew your mother. If you got into trouble, she knew it before
you got home. It was easy to build friendships
in that environment. I’m still friends
with kids I went to grade school or high school with. Most, however, are folks we’ve met through
our kids’ school life or community involvement wherever we lived. Parent clubs, fundraising events, and
volunteering brought many of us together, and we stuck.
My
Facebook account has a list of hundreds of acquaintances but only a few
friends. Four quarters are always better
than 100 pennies.
