Most of the things that happen to an individual, if traced, can be linked to the kind of company they keep. As a matter of fact, you may not notice it at first, but your thought, action, behaviour, and even your character, can be influenced by your friends. But much more than that, you can even experience an occurrence that is directly or remotely linked to the people you stay predominantly with. This is why it is always advisable to move and company with the people that will add positively to your life.
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In order to show you the effect of the company that someone keep can have on them, I will use two examples. Here's the first example which a friend of mine told me: He had a relative who, by virtue of his upbringing and environment, was morally upright. He grew up that way, that even others were admiring and wanted to be like him. He kept on that way until he entered university. The hostel room where they gave him, it happened that the two other guys that he was sharing his room with were morally depraved.
The room mates would do just anything; smoking, drinking, bringing in women into the hostel room against the school's policy. At first, the guy was not tilted towards their direction, but they kept mounting pressure on him to join them in their illicit acts. One Friday night, the room mates invited him to what they told him was a birthday party of their friend. Well, he thought that it was a harmless birthday party so he went with them, but when he got there, it was more or less a confraternity gathering. Just a few minutes of getting to the event, the police got a tip-off and arrived at the scene. They rounded up everyone including the guy who did not know what was happening.
When he was brought to the station, he tried to explain that he thought he was going for a birthday party but they would not listen. The only saving grace was that his phone had a call recorder that automatically records calls. So when the police went through the phone and listened to all their conversations, they got to know that he was, indeed, innocent. But he had already spent the night in detention and also parted away with some large funds for his bail terms. All these because he was in the wrong company. This goes to prove that who you follow will ultimately and eventually determine what follows you.
The next example is my own personal experience; benefits of good company. A few weeks back, I went to visit one of my friends to know how he was getting on with his new place. On getting there, he told me that was about to go for some supplies, that I should come with him. Of course I accepted because he was my friend. On the way to the supplies, we needed to branch in to get some more orders since I was with him, and that was when we came across a man that was asking for where a particular job will be done for him. When he mentioned that, we told him that we can connect him to a good person that does the job.
We went with him since it was still on our way to pick up the orders, so we helped connect him to the person. Amazingly, he called both of us and engaged us in a discussion and that was when we got to find out that he was a very well-placed man in the society. We exchanged contacts and just when we were about to leave, he reached into his bag and brought some good sum and handed over to us for our time. We could not believe it. I then thought to myself; if I had not gone with him, I would have missed out of this opportunity, and if he had not gone with me, he would not have bothered branching to pick more orders. So we both benefited from the company of each other.
No matter how you look at it, the company you keep can chart the course for your life. You will be surprised how your friendship can alter the course of your life forever, so you need to take caution when choosing your friends. If your friends are not of a positive addition to you, then you do not have any reason being with them because they will definitely be of a negative addition to you - there is no neutrality.
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Before you choose a friend, look at their life and ask yourself if you would want your life to be modelled after their own. You need to be intentional when it comes to choosing friends. This is because your life can be permanently made or marred if you choose the good or bad company respectively. If you hang around fire, you should expect your clothes to smell smokey. If you hang around the rain, you should also expect your clothes to be wet. In the same way, if you hang around certain people, you tend to pick up their personality. So you should be careful with choosing who you stay around.
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