From the moment we enter this world we endure the process of experiencing the "other." From infancy we learn about feelings from our surroundings: Sadness is felt once we understand what happiness is, we are taught the meaning of "tall" so that "short" will be understood and the same applies to beauty versus ugliness, rich versus poor, angry versus calm and so forth.

My first memories of friendship are of my parents’ experiences with their close friends. They would call and visit at times of sickness, or crises in the family, or simply assist my mom while my dad was away. In the eyes of a boy, Israel was a heaven to grow up in. Friends were always there for me in an unequivocal manner regardless of the time of day or the state of mind. It was an inspirational stage of my life, and if I may say, a period which molded my future perception of friendship and its high value.

Similar to the cultural difficulty of getting acclimated to stingy people (when you are “generous” in nature) and cruelty (when kindness and gentleness rule your life), turning one's back to a friend has similar outcomes. If there is something I can say with full confidence, it would be to value your commitment to your friends, and theirs to you. We do not choose our relatives, but we definitely do choose our friends.

There are many arguments I have heard in the past about the relationship between a cultural value and the quality and depth of a true friendship. I have not researched it, but I can only speak of my own intuition and insights. The concept of friendship relates to the education and the experiences you encounter in the first stages of your life, if with your parents, or with your immediate environment. In Israel, as in other countries, friendship enters the value system once we are born. We listen to the heroic stories of people carrying their friends over vast distances, we visit one another without notice, and we are told at a young age that having a good friend is like receiving the best gift for one's birthday. When I was growing up, it was not unusual for a sixty-year-old person to be in touch with his/her friends from kindergarten.

At times there is a sad part to friendship. This happens when you are betrayed by one who you considered a good friend. When greed, egotism and self-indulgence take over, that is when one needs “to do his/her balance sheet.” By admitting the pain, disappointment and loss of faith, one can try to move on.

As a businessman, my opinions quite often deviate from the "standard code of operational thought." I believe that everything happens for a reason while our free choice is always an option. Similar to the old saying: "What goes around, comes around," our experiences come back to haunt us. We must take the lessons of life to our hearts, soft or severe as they may be.

To lose a personal friend however, whose friendship was taken for granted can be a devastating blow to one's self esteem. The disappointment and the sense of bitterness take over us. It is at moments like these that we must try to forgive that person, move on and sincerely hope that when truth will prevail in life, that the backlash will not be too harsh.

Yoram Yahav
CEO