Surrounding yourself with “yes men” is a great way to never be challenged, stretched, questioned, corrected, or convicted. You will never grow a thick skin, you’ll get insufferably insensitive, and you’ll feel entitled to never hear a contradiction even when you’re driving off a cliff. Surrounding yourself with only likable people is a great way to never practice patience, perseverance, compassion, sacrifice, and humility. You’ll be that snobby guy who can’t stop demonizing people who are not like him (and that guy needs grace too). If you can hang in the mess of people who are nothing like you, it will not be pretty — but you’ll be a more well-rounded individual, and more than that, you will even come to love those people and like them, too.

— J