Relationship With Enemies, Essay Example

In high school, I had relatively naïve perceptions of the real world. I believed that being honest is always the best policy but eventually realized that my approach made me more enemies than friends. There was a guy named Yun in our social group who would often change his opinions to suit the circumstances in a group discussion while I would always say what I truly meant. As a result, Yun developed significant goodwill within the group and started creating misunderstandings between me and others. He even started exploiting the social goodwill to extract financial benefits from his friends, many of whom were wealthy.Negative relationships often serve as distractions from more important things but Yun taught me that enemies can also be a great source of learning and personal growth.

One of the major lessons Yun taught me about life was the importance of social influence. Our power is not determined by our individual characteristics only but also by our potential to get others behind our cause. Yun was more powerful than me within the group because he could get more people behind his plan than me. Thus, it pays to be diplomatic because people care more about their feelings than our sincerity or honesty. Another thing Yun taught me was the importance of studying the environment and adapting accordingly. Yun would always change his behavior to suit the environment within the group which helped him build goodwill. Yun also taught me that what matters is not whether we are right or wrong but what others want to hear because people prefer confirmation of their beliefs rather than contradiction.

I usually avoid negative relationships because they only lead to undesirable emotions such as anger and resentment. But if having enemies is really unavoidable in life, then I would prefer enemies like Yun because they also teach you a lot about life. Even though Yun never taught me anything directly, his behaviors and the outcomes of those behaviors forced me to critically analyze my own approach to life and make changes accordingly.