Company affects people's character and behavior. The choice of the company to stick with will sure affect your reactions to life issues, personality, language and even success in life. A good company of friends is defined by a set of qualities that ought to manifest themselves in the company identified as good. The qualities form the foundation for a friendship that thrives and has continuity for lengthy times in future. Though there are a number of qualities that are identifiable with a good company, the most critical ones are respect, honesty and trust, supportiveness, a company that listens and absence of exploitation.
According to Wellbeing.rice.edu (n.d.), a good friendship is founded based on respect. This goes both ways, the company of friends you have respect you and you reciprocate by respecting them. Friends who disrespect you and undermine you are not the company to stick with. According to Oregonstate.edu (2013), the presence of a company of respectful friends builds a person's esteem. With self-esteem, it is easier to gear on in life after going through challenges and hurdles in life. A company of friends that is disrespectful would lower a person's self-esteem. Consequently, it will be evident that the person has little self-confidence, determination and the will to succeed. In essence, the right company must be the one that has a bearing of respect that goes either way.
Strengthofus.org (2013) identifies marks of a good company to entail honesty and trust. Honesty in the sense that the friends will be frank with you and their actions will be genuine and not mischievous. Groups of friends who are frank help build ones strong characters while rectifying the areas of weakness. Trust is a critical factor in friendship. According to Wellbeing.rice.edu (n.d.), trust opens up other important aspects of friendship such as ease of communication, the bond of friendship and sense of security. The best company of friends trusts one another and thus has a mutual feeling of safety, security and ease to converse with one another.
A good company is supportive of one's goals and visions (Strengthofus.org, 2013). The friends should be encouraging, providing advice and solutions. Wellbeing.rice.edu (n.d.) states that friends who ignore one another characterize unhealthy friendships. There is no support and probably no similar goals in life. With such a trend, the friendships do not last but rather break quite fast due to lack of a base platform of understanding. Support could also be in times of difficulty and hardship in life such as during grief and moments of failure (Famfi.org, 2011). The support encourages progress towards attainment of future goals.
A good foundation of a friendship is the ability of all the individuals in the group to listen to one another (Strengthofus.org, 2013). Good friends listen to one another. Famfi.org (2011) states that good friends should be willing to listen at all times and be accommodative of others. Their views or issues should not be dominant at all times in all conversations. They should be willing to listen to your ideas, opinions, ears and your challenges. Such a great quality of listening in a company of friends makes them able to be supportive at the right time and give wise counsel.
The last vital quality in a good company is the lack of exploitation. According to Famfi.org (2011), good people do not abuse the generosity of any member in the group. They rather offer appreciation and thankfulness for every shred of kindness. Exploitative friends bear a lot of inconsistencies. They are only present at times when they want a person to meet their need but will be absent in the subsequent times. If a friendship is founded on this basis, it will surely not last.