Frienomics-Economics among Friends!

Mark Twain once said, “Good Friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life”. Few might agree to this but many putatively might not as many things and activities of many lives are associated with friends. But do good friends exist in non-ideal life? Many people might take it as dramatically acceptable while few might take it to contra-note. One might find it strange to believe if any economics exist among the friends, but the fact being that it does exist, since the childhood. Both behavioral and financial investments exist among the friends.

Time is money and time is one of the most expensive resources on earth. This is the major resource that is invested in friendship, but unfortunately it is absolutely zero-valued when it comes to friends. The investment or economics among friends is very interesting; as it violates one of the basic principles of life and economics “There is no free lunch”. Usually, among the friends, the lunches are free and thus, it stands to be one of the major indicators to differentiate “good friends”. Going through the life-cycles of many investors in the world, you will see the impact of friends. The trend shows that friends are the primary moral and financial investors. Whether it is about starting a business entity or anything, it is friends who invest, financially and morally, in the friends’ projects and that too, collateral free. You approach with the same proposal to banks or investment companies, you will be asked for the tangible collateral which the company can sell in case of defaults. It is only good friends who invest in the same on the foundation of the most expensive and intangible collateral on earth, Trust.

The economics among friends defy the trade-off with any other variable in life but the scenario is such that most people understand the context very late. Where the profitabilities can lead to either direction with normal investment decisions, a good frienomic investment decision will only escalate the profitability. In a good frienomic environment, the moral boost, the support, love & care and the finances are the major assets involved and their investments do not seek tangible returns which decrease the chances of contemplation of the obligation among friends. The days have been different in the 21^st century. People have started anticipating returns for everything from everybody under every circumstance.

Corporate sector runs through a basic principle of segregating the emotion from business. No doubt, friendship is an emotion but a good frienomic environment assures the commitment which ultimately leads to the success. This is high time people start investing some time to think about frienomics in this morally-degrading world. Let’s hope that Aristotle’s thought on friends of “single soul dwelling on two bodies” give rise to mutually inclusive and efficient frienomics.

Note: This article was published in the Perspectives of The Himalayan Times on 31 August, 2014.