The current level that you are is a product of the people who you soround your self with because associations matters a lot, in our biology we where taught about different associations that exist in nature which includes symbiosis, mutuality and parasitism etc
Exactly the circle of friends you keep facilitates your current success and current positions in life and just as everything is opened to change then you ought to change the association you keep cause it goes s long way in determining your future outcome. Having said this life is a lesson and like the saying goes once bitten twice shy and inorder to survive in this economy it's an avenue to surround yourself with people of great influence and affluence, people void of hates and jealousy but rather strive for the best in themselves.
Are we really seriously bound by the friends we have when we are dealing with business? I have like 5-6 close friends for example and they all do different jobs and we never really talk about business, because we are not in business together so we have nothing to do with each other when it comes to business world.
From a simple government worker to a high paid lawyer, none of them never benefited me or hurt me, none of them had any negative impact on my life nor a positive one. I am talking about in money or business sense by the way, of course they all had amazing positive impact on my life as friends, I would die for them, I love them a lot, I just mean that we do not talk about business that much, aside from like being very busy and all that so it makes things harder to meet frequently. So I am not entirely sure if our friendship circle matters that much, sure if they want money from you or something then yeah that's bad, but aside from that, you should not look to your friends for business.