How To Spot Fake Friends

You really don’t need binoculars to see these people.

I want to use today’s article to talk about fake friends. On the road to your dreams, it’s critical that you keep great people in your life and remove people who suck.

This is simple math. Add and Subtract.

You will reach your dream life if you have the right people to travel there with. “Real friends.”

You will not reach your dream life if you have the wrong people sabotaging your journey. “Fake friends.”

Here are a few ways to spot the wrong people – “the fake friends:”

If they let you constantly do dumb sh*t

Fake friends love to see you “dance” for their entertainment. They will encourage you to act like a douche. They will let you make a fool of yourself and put it on YouTube. Since their lives are so miserable, they need to ruin other people’s lives to keep theirs interesting.

If they don’t share their dreams with you

Fake friends are not concerned with bettering their lives. When the topic comes up about what they want to do with their lives they avoid it. They will call you corny for talking about it, or avoid the situation entirely by changing topics or saying “I don’t know” and acting frustrated. The truth is they probably do know but don’t believe in themselves enough to make it happen. To counter this sad reality, they leech onto you to suck the life out of you.

If they don’t call you out when you mess up

Fake friends love to see you go down, because it brings you to their level. Nobody is perfect. Real friends will be there to say “look you are messing up right now in ______ area of your life.” Real friends want you to prosper. Fake friends want you to perish. You need real friends who will keep you on track to reaching your dreams and make you a better person.

If they don’t care about your opinion

Fake friends don’t care what you think. Period. They are only there to project their negative energy onto you and feed off of your energy. They are selfish and so when you tell them things, they pretend to listen but can never remember what it was you tried to teach them.

If they only seem to be around when they want something

As I mentioned, they are selfish. You can easily spot a fake friend by looking for when they like to come around. Do they only call you to go drinking because they know you will buy drinks for them? Do they only call you when they are in trouble? Do they only call you when they need you to pick them up? Do they only call you when they are short on money? Do they only call you to complain?

If they always complain about everything

That last question brings me to this point. Fake friends love to complain because they have nothing else going for them. They whine about every stupid little thing. Why would you want to waste your life listening to that?

If they aren’t looking out for your health

Lastly, fake friends don’t care if you die. Sorry to sound so harsh but it’s true. Fake friends will let you drink, smoke, chew, party, eat, and drug yourself to death. A fake friend does not care what you do to yourself as long as it entertains them. If you try to better yourself, they try to derail you. Because if you get better you will leave them. They aren’t worried about you; they are worried about being abandoned. Fake friends are still people and people need to be social. If you leave, it means they have to find someone else to feed off of. This means they have to pretend to listen and care about someone long enough to leech onto them and that is more work.

I hope this article was a wake up call for you. I hope you are surrounding yourself only with the best people. You need great people in your life!

I once had a slew of fake friends… They don’t exist to me any more. They have been subtracted from my life. And you know what… I don’t miss them at all. My life is infinitely better and the people I invest my time in now are the ones who make me a better person. I am blessed to have such great friends and I will make sure to keep them in my life.

Thanks for reading and please share!

Your real friend,

Aaron

7 Comments

Posted：01 Jun 2010 9:35 1. By：Mike Dinwiddie

One thing I noticed with fake friends is that they hate to see you happy. If you tell them 10 positive things that you accomplished, they will focus on the one thing you didn’t accomplish. We all know misery loves company and these miserable people don’t wanna hear about our great lives if they can’t relate. It’s sad, but I’m afraid it’s human nature! I notice it’s mostly the people back home who are doing nothing special with their lives that fit this category. Anyway, this is a great post that everyone should read.
Posted：01 Jun 2010 13:46 2. By：admin

Thanks for the comment Mike! I feel exactly the same and I’m glad you shared that. I think the rest of our readers will agree as well. That’s why it’s so important to get out of those negative environments and away from those types of people. I think you nailed a great point and I hope everyone else takes it heart. Thank you for sharing and thank you for your support.
Posted：01 Jun 2010 13:47 3. By：admin

I want to keep this conversation going. Please comment on Mike’s point and please share signs that you have noticed in fake friends. We all need to see the signs.

What are some other signs of fake friends that you have noticed?
Posted：01 Jun 2010 15:17 4. By：Joe Todd

This article is so true! For me it is very important to keep a very close circle. It’s not always the case, but more often than not having a ton of friends increases the odds of many of them being fake, especially if you are successful and going places. Better to shed the excess, keep it lean, and be able to trust the people on your team because their genuine support is critical to your success.
Posted：01 Jun 2010 16:20 5. By：admin

Hey Joe, thanks for pushing the conversation further and coming up with another great idea. I like the idea of keeping the circle of friends lean and you definitely see the value of building a circle of trust.

Have you guys found it difficult to cut people out who may fall into the fake friend category?
Posted：02 Jun 2010 18:29 6. By：Lucio

Preach it! Fake friends suck especially when you are a good friend who wants nothing but the best for all your friends. I can see it being difficult to cut fake friends out because as a good friend you believe everyone can change…..GUESS WHAT…THEY DON’T!!! Some may change after you cut them off because they realize what they really lost but majority will move on to fake it up and swagger jack somebody else.
Posted：02 Jun 2010 19:58 7. By：admin

Thanks for contributing to the convo Lucio! I definitely appreciate it. I have had a hard time cutting a few people out as well. I also noticed that they haven’t gotten any better so I don’t feel bad for cutting them out. I also noticed that if you stop calling them after a while they eventually stop calling you. Have you noticed that?