#25: Friendship
If friendship was represented by a well rooted tree solidly grown over many years, then money would be the gust of wind with the power to overturn the tree in one quick moment.
The relationship between friendship and money is an interesting one, isn’t it?
Britannica defines friendship as «a state of enduring affection, esteem, intimacy and trust between two people. In all cultures, friendships are important relationships throughout a person’s life span».
By contrast, money «circulates anonymously from person to person and country to country».
The two concepts don’t seem to match, do they? Trust vs. anonymity! You don’t develop friendships spending money, at least not the lasting ones, yet money can cause lasting damage to a friendship.
In what feels like a lifetime ago, I got introduced to the concept of asymmetrical risks. What makes a risk asymmetrical is the fact that its potential gains and losses are uneven. Take liquidity risk for example. Assuming that you require a certain amount of liquidity to remain solvent at all times, excess liquidity over and above the minimum liquidity amount only gives you a marginal benefit whereas a liquidity shortfall has the potential to push you into insolvency. Finished.
Why would that be relevant to friendship?
Let me tell you the tale of two men, one short, the other one tall.
Once upon a time, a short man from a fairy-tale kingdom landed in a foreign land with buildings many times taller than the kingdom’s castle. The short man didn’t speak the local language, so he communicated in common language with a strange Alpine accent. A tall man, who himself had never been to the short man’s kingdom, immediately felt pity for the short man and took him under his wing. He gave him shelter in the office and fed him local delicacies. That didn’t make the short man grow any taller, but it did strengthen their friendship one cha siu bao at a time.
Their friendship was finally put to a test when the short man pulled a muscle in a bowling alley, but their deep connection turned out to be stronger than roaring laughter could have ever been. Defying gravity in speedy cars, re-defining humor in the corporate world and pulling an all nighter gambling and watching the GOAT all made the roots of their friendship grow stronger and stronger.
Then money flew from one pocket into another. Employments ended. Their lives took different turns and directions. It didn’t put an end to their friendship.
Not yet. It was solid after all.
Their reunion came unexpectedly. They had a good time and enjoyed the moment. Not much trash talk, definitely no money talk.
That was when it suddenly stopped. The moment it got mentioned years later brought their friendship to tip. Not just a little less of the same. Gone by the pressing of a send button.
So one evening, the short man sat there in his kitchen wondering how he could make a new start and a brand new ending (kudos to Prince EA).
He reached out to the tall man one more time. His message was simple, yet profound:
Why not start afresh?
And that is how they both lived happily ever after.
