Mustafa Sherif – Making Friends with Everyone May Leave You with No One

<p><strong>BIO:</strong> Mustafa Sherif is an urban planner with a big focus on the social sustainability aspect of city development. He is also the host of the Urbanistica podcast.</p><p><strong>STORY: </strong>Mustafa would easily make friends to a point where he had hundreds of friends. However, after running a social experiment, he realized that he had spent so much time and money building friendships that were just one-sided.</p><p><strong>LEARNING:</strong> The smaller your inner circle, the deeper the relationships. Real friendships are two-sided and do not need to drain your energy or time.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p class="ql-align-center"><strong>“I do not need to go all-in when building friendships. I need to let it go with the flow.”</strong></p><p class="ql-align-center">Mustafa Sherif</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h2><strong>Guest profile</strong></h2><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mustafa-sherif/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Mustafa Sherif</strong></a> is an urban planner with a big focus on the social sustainability aspect of city development. He is also the host of the<a href="https://shows.acast.com/Urbanistica" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> Urbanistica podcast</a>. It’s a podcast about how we create smart and livable cities. Mustafa is passionate about planning cities with people and by people.</p><h2><strong>Worst investment ever</strong></h2><p>When Mustafa moved from Baghdad to Sweden, he had the chance to meet new kinds of people. Back in his home country, he would only meet the same type of people from the same background as his.</p><p>Mustafa loves talking and doing stuff with people, so he tried to be friends with as many people as possible.</p><h3><strong>One-sided friendship</strong></h3><p>Mustafa found himself putting in all the work into the friendships he formed. He was the one always texting them, checking upon them, and organizing events to bring them together.</p><h3><strong>Out of sight, out of mind</strong></h3><p>When Mustafa moved from Sweden to Italy