Don't ask what kind of friends you have. Ask what kind of friend you are

In interviews of celebrities or famous people who have just recovered from a tough period in their lives, whether it be with drug addiction or a dip in their careers, I often hear them talking about the company they keep.

So often I hear them saying pretty much the exact same thing. That during the tough times in their lives, they went back and evaluate the kind of friends they had around them. All of them will then go on to say that they realize that most of the people around them weren't their friends at all, but they are just hanger-ons, entourages and people who hang around them for their own benefits.  

While I agree that this is often true, and that it is good to evaluate who your real friends are, I fell that if they  truely have reevaluated their lives in order to improve it, this is not what they would be thinking.

By only asking who your real friends are is a little selfish in some respect. It can mean that you are only thinking about yourself, since you are only evaluating what you "get" from them. If you really want to turn your life around and change to a better path, the question you should be asking is who am a real friend to. They should be asking if people were to make a list of their "true friends", would they be in it? They should being asking themselves who they have been good to, instead of who has been good to them. Only by truely giving, will they find true happiness in return (yeah yeah I know it's cheezy, but it's also true).