Five years from today you will be pretty much the same as you are today except for two things: the books you read and the people you get close to. Charles Jones

The Problem

• Do you have a close friend? Not just someone to call for lunch, but a genuinely close friend?
• Adult friendships are difficult to start and harder to keep.
• Most men have a friendship deficit. We don't have anyone who is willing to just listen, to simply be a friend and listen, and not always to have a quick solution.

Friends Versus Acquaintances

• You'd be fortunate if you had three real friends.
• Are the men you consider friends really friends?

Too Close for Comfort

• We sincerely want to have close friends, yet we fear letting someone get too close. We worry that if someone really got to know us, they wouldn't like us.
• We need approval, to be accepted by another person, but we fear the opposite -- that we will be rejected.

Betrayed!

• Few types of emotional pain sear as painfully and as deeply as that of betrayal by a friend.
• Trust, transparency, and vulnerability are the stuff of which true friendships are constructed.

Taking the Risk

• If you want a real friend, you will probably need to be the one who takes the initiative.
• The price of friendship is personal vulnerability.
• Transparency must characterize a friendship.

A Friend

• A friend is there when you need him.
• A friend keeps us on track.
• A friend helps us crystallize our thoughts.
• A friend will listen.