A friend who tells you an inconvenient truth may be giving more than one who offers convenient agreement.

Agreement is cheap and it is what most people offer, because it costs nothing and keeps the evening pleasant. Someone who tells you the thing you do not want to hear is spending their own standing in the friendship to give you accurate information. That is a larger gift than support, even though it arrives feeling worse. Very few people will take that risk with you.

When someone gives you an unwelcome opinion, notice the impulse to defend and delay it by a day. Then ask whether they were right. And when they are, tell them, which is what keeps them willing to do it again.