“It’s crazy that our friendship started from a huge fight.”

That’s what my good friend Jared told me yesterday. Our friendship was born out of a bitter online battle beneath one of my videos.

He said some critical things, my tired ass took them as fighting words, and I started responding with digital haymakers.

Then I felt bad and personally messaged him.

We cleared up the mess and became friends within 4 messages.

Turns out he lives right down the street from me in Metro Manila. We met up and had a lot of fun a week later.

We even started our very own blog recently.

It got me thinking…

There’s a specific type of person you need to surround yourself with — actually there’s a few..

1. Someone Who Will Respectfully Disagree With Most Of What You Say

I need to take my own advice here. I hate having friends who disagree with me, but it’s needed.

I have one friend on Facebook who pretty much always disagrees with my ideas. HOWEVER, he does it with a lot of tact, and he never makes me feel like he thinks I’m a bad person.

He brings up a lot of good points, actually.

Now, I’d be lying if I said I look forward to this comments the most, but they are needed.

I think you need someone who’s not afraid to annoy you with the other side of your own arguments. These friends can be the hardest to keep, because it’s so easy to let ego get in the way.

But you need people to almost annoyingly challenge you. And I myself need to get better at welcoming these people.

2. Someone Who Will Blindly Encourage The Hell Out Of You

Sometimes fear and self doubt get the best of us. In fact, for anybody who has a pulse, it gets the best of us most of the time.

So you’re going to need someone that will basically drop an atomic bomb of encouragement onto you anytime you’re fixing to shoot for the stars.

For me, that’s my parents. I’m lucky to have such supportive parents. Beyond lucky, actually. For you it may be your best friend, your sibling, a family member, an old teacher, or just anyone.

Make sure to add this role to your list of “Friend Avengers.”

3. Someone Who Gets You To Step Outside Your Comfort Zone

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been invited to a party that I didn’t want to go to by my best friend Steve.

Then when I get there with Steve, we have a great time. We drink, we meet new people, we have a lot of laughs, and it makes for a memorably forgettable night.

Forgettable because we have trouble remembering the next morning through the haze of all the alcohol.

These nights may be meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but I always feel like a million bucks the day after (when I get over the hangover), since I stepped outside of my comfort zone and got to connect with cool individuals.

You need people that are going to (sometimes violently) push you out of your comfort zone. My vlogger friend Sandy is always convincing me to go with him on his next adventure in the Philippines.

I don’t have time, I tell him, but sometimes when he keeps insisting I decide to tag along. I have never regretted one trip I took with him yet.

4. Someone Who Will Challenge You Intellectually

I’m a simpleton. I read posts from friends like Niklas Göke and I’m in awe of his ability to think 3–4 levels deeper than the surface on many issues.

I’m very much a “here and now” type of a person who doesn’t always think about philosophy or deeper topics.

I think we need someone who will tell us to “hop in” and take us there.

We need someone who is brimming with ideas, deep perspectives, and quite frankly a different way of looking at the world.

These people are different from the ones who disagree with you from earlier in this article. They’re moreso an ally, bringing you into deeper waters that you didn’t even know were there.

5. Someone Older Who Can Put Things In Perspective For You

When I say “older,” I don’t mean they need to be a sage living in a monastery in the Himalayas. They can be a few years older than you, ten years older than you, or they could be the age of your grandparents.

What matters is that they’ve been through what you’ve been through and can put things in the proper perspective.

Sometimes we don’t need someone to disagree with us, agree with us, pull us out of our comfort zone, or challenge us intellectually..

Sometimes we just need someone to tell us “Yeah you’re overreacting about this, but don’t worry — you’re going to be okay.”

And that can work wonders to solve a lot of the anxiety we feel.

For me, one of those people is Michael Thompson.

Feel free to go find a monk in a monastery to fill this gap, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if your #3 person would convince you to do something like that.

Send me pictures.

If you get these five people on your list of “Friendvengers,” then you’ll be properly equipped to deal with any Thanos-level situation in your life. I promise.

Hail Hydra.