How Long Does it Take to Make a Friend?

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Relationships are the currency of the wealthy.

In my Rich Habits Study I accumulated a lot of data on the importance of relationships in building building wealth. The wealthy in my study, particularly the Big Company Climbers and Entrepreneurs, were master relationship builders. But they did not build any old relationships. They focused on forging strong alliances with what I call Power Relationships. These are strong relationships, forged over many years, with Influencers – individuals who were wealthy and successful.

So, that took me down another of the many rabbit holes my Rich Habits research seemed to pull me into.

How do the wealthy actually build these Power Relationships?

I can boil it down to 4 Tools:

1. Happy Birthday Calls – Calling every year to say happy birthday
2. Hello Calls – 4 -5 calls a year just to say hello
3. Life Event Calls – Weddings, funerals, wakes, bar mitzvas/bat mitzvas, births, graduations, promotions, etc.
4. Strategic Networking – Participation in community-based non-profits, religious groups, trade groups, industry-related groups and business groups

Fine. But how long do you have to do the above to forge a strong friendship. While my Study did not capture that important data, I found a separate Study that did.

In a study of 355 adults who recently moved, Jeffrey Hall, lead researcher and Professor of Communications Studies at the University of Kansas, found the following:

• It takes 60 Hours to forge a Casual Friendship
• It takes 100 Hours to forge a more Long-Term Friendship
• It takes 200 Hours to forge a Strong Friendship

Tom Corley is an accountant, financial planner and author of “Rich Kids: How to Raise Our Children to Be Happy and Successful in Life”, Effort-Less Wealth, Change Your Habits Change Your Life, Rich Habits Poor Habits and “Rich Habits: The Daily Success Habits of Wealthy Individuals.”