FRIENDSHIP

It's a funny thing isn't it? Friendship. Being new to things like Facebook it took me awhile to get used to people using the term "friend" when in reality most of those people barely know me. Some of my Facebook "friends" don't even know what I do for a living it seems. Others are people that I would consider friends in the more conventional sense of the word, at least my definition. To me a friend is someone that's part of your life. Share some common interests, hobbies, etc. Someone you can talk to when you need to vent or need some advice. Someone you can lean on if you need to, or can lean on you when the going gets tough. Someone that has your back so to speak. So I guess looking at the term "friend" in those terms I really have a very small circle of those types of friends.
I have some friends through my shop, people that are in my industry and we have a common bond being in the motorcycle biz. Those friends I am very loyal to and always try to help and support whenever I can. In most cases they have been my friends for a long time, some even before I actually started my first shop.
I used to think I had a lot of "friends" that were our customers too. I think I still do in some cases but I realized most of them really aren't "friends" as much as just true customers, different relationship in most cases. Those people tend to be less loyal I've found. I remember back before I started in this biz and I had some friends that owned shops. I would never even think about taking my money to anyone else, these people were my friends. Not the case anymore. Too bad. Building a relationship with your local shop guy has it's advantages. The issue is when the local shop guy realizes you're not very loyal with him, then the relationship can become tough to deal with. I mean this is how some of us feed our families, pay our car payments and mortgages so when we find out people we thought were our "friends" have been supporting our competitors in a very highly competitive business, well, it's not so good.
See to me friendship requires a few things. It needs to be a two way street. You need to be supportive and should expect the same in return from a friend. I go out of my way to help my friends. I'll make calls or send e-mail on their behalf for numerous reasons. If possible I'll do whatever I can to ease my friend's burdens. I don't keep score about how many times, when I did it or how things turned out. I do that for people dozens of times a week and I guess I expect it to go both ways. I don't ask for anything in return either, a thank you is more than sufficient for me. It's not a huge inconvenience for me to help them out.
If I had a friend say in the tattoo biz and I wanted a tattoo done. I'd never even think about going to anyone except my friend as long as he could do the work I require. Now if he happened to own a motorcycle then I'd probably be within reason to think he'd support my shop just as I had done for him. Seems my thinking is out of date anymore I guess.
Another example, if I had friend in the body shop biz and my car had been clipped or needed to be fixed. I'd support my friend before supporting anyone else's shop, right? I mean if he's a friend he'll look out for me and maybe go that extra step to make sure my car or truck or whatever is fixed properly. Makes sense to me. Maybe not to others.
I have "friends" from outside the motorcycle biz too. They come from various walks of life. Funny thing about them. One that I thought was somewhat of a close friend just reamed me because she thought I was somehow disrespecting her and trying to make her look stupid. This after she went out of her way to make a phone call on my behalf one day. First, I am a smart ass, 100%, always have been. The things she thought make her look stupid were a joke, nothing mean spirited about them at all but I guess she took them the wrong way. That or she just has no sense of humor. This person says I am mean to her and never thanked her for that phone call she made for me. Well now I have thanked her and told her we don't need to be "friends" any longer. I have better things to do with my day than get bitched at by a woman I don't have to wake up next to in the morning.
Recently someone that I never considered to be an especially close "friend" said she thought I was a good example of a friend and someone who lived his life by a certain set of ethics. I thought that was a very nice thing to say. So someone that I knew, liked and work with although I never thought noticed how I conducted my life made a difference to me. That's a friend.
If you have a true friend, let them know about it. Support them and let them support you when you need it.

FTF
Ride free.