New success, same old friends. That’s the kind of glow-up people respect.

When something goes well, a quiet pressure arrives to upgrade the people around you to match. What that actually does is trade a group who knew you before the result for a group who only knows the result, which is a poor swap on every measure except appearance. Staying put is not loyalty as a performance. It is keeping the people who can still tell you the truth.

Call the person you would have called about this two years ago. Keep whatever standing arrangement you had before anything changed. Let new people join the group rather than replace it.