Well, I think this is one important principle to optimize our life. And for one simple reason: our close friends have great influence on us. If we gather around bad friends, who carry bad habits with them, then soon or later we will absorb the bad habits and become bad ourself. On the opposite, if we gather around good friends, who have excellent character and principles of life, then soon or later we will absorb the excellent values and become an excellent person ourselves.

Of course it doesn’t mean that we must stay away all the time from people with bad habits. If we do so, then we introduce exclusivity to our life which is a bad habit by itself. We should learn to build relationship with various kinds of people, and some of them may have bad habit. But what I mean is they should not be our close friends. Close friends are the people with whom we spend most of our time, with whom we consult if we face a problem, and whose advice we expect when we must make important decisions in our life. For close friends like this, I think we must be very careful to pick only the right persons. Opening ourselves to the wrong values can make the difference between becoming a winner or a loser in life.

I personally believe that choosing the right friends is among the most important decisions we can make in our life. The outcome of our life – whether it is good or bad – is determined years before when we choose the people we’d like to gather with (again, what I mean here is close friends). So, if you want to be a winner in life, you can start now be choosing winners as your close friends.