How Long Does It Take to Make Someone a Friend?

tip-o-the-morning

Tom Corley boats - crop

As I’ve stated many times – Relationships are the currency of the wealthy.

In my Rich Habits Study, one of the common attributes of the wealthy was that they surrounded themselves with positive, upbeat, enthusiastic, success-minded people.

Building these relationships, I learned, took many years – on average, about three years per relationship.

While that might seem like a long time, in reality, the time invested was spread out over many years.

In a paper published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, Jeffrey Hall, a professor of Communications Studies, actually conducted a study to determine how many hours it took to forge a single friendship. According to his research findings, it took about 80 hours.

If you were to spread that 80 hours out over 156 weeks (3 years X 52 weeks a year), the investment required to create a friend, is about 31 minutes a week.

So, how do you go about forging a friendship with another success-minded individuals?

  • Physical Meetings – Weekly breakfast meetings, weekly lunch meetings, or having a few beers at some bar once a week.
  • Volunteer –  You could also volunteer to assist your future friend in the non-profit they work with, some trade group they are involved in or their networking group, if they have one. Here you would need to find out what groups they are involved in and ask them if you can join their group.
  • Non-Physical Meetings – This could also be accomplished through weekly phone calls, emails, or even social media interactions.

However you do it, your interactions must be consistent and regular.

Over time, your investment in your new friend will pay off.

Friends open doors that are otherwise closed. Friends help fund your dreams. Friends encourage and support you in your dreams, goals and initiatives. And friends invite you into their inner circle, exposing you to even more success-minded individuals, with whom you can forge new friendships.

Be Sociable, Share!
Thomas C. Corley About Thomas C. Corley

Tom Corley is a bestselling author, speaker, and media contributor for Business Insider, CNBC and a few other national media outlets.

His Rich Habits research has been read, viewed or heard by over 50 million people in 25 countries around the world.

Besides being an author, Tom is also a CPA, CFP, holds a master’s degree in taxation and is President of Cerefice and Company, a CPA firm in New Jersey.
 
Phone Number: 732-382-3800 Ext. 103.
Email Tom
| Download Media Kit

Comments

  1. I don’t think you are describing a “friend”, but more of an associate, or partnership. That or we’ve settled on a very shallow definition of friend. I have friends that can do nothing for me at a business or financial level, but will come in the middle of the night if I say I need them. That’s a friend.

Leave a Reply to Nance Cancel reply

*