You learn in this business: If you want a friend, get a dog.

Friendship dies when the deal stops working

There's a harsh wisdom here that most people don't want to admit, even though they feel it everywhere. In competitive spaces—whether it's work, money, or even social climbing—genuine friendship becomes surprisingly rare. People show up when you're winning and vanish when you're not. They smile while positioning themselves. Icahn's bluntness cuts through the pretense: if you expect loyalty and unconditional presence, you're probably going to be disappointed by other humans.

But here's the twist—he's not saying friendship doesn't exist. He's saying it's rarer than we pretend, especially in high-stakes environments. Most of us move through situations where people have agendas. Your boss isn't your friend. Your business partner has competing interests. Even casual friends might drift when there's nothing in it for them. A dog, by contrast, doesn't care about your net worth or your next move. It just shows up.

The real insight isn't that all relationships are transactional. It's that we often confuse proximity and shared interests with actual friendship, and then feel betrayed when the difference becomes obvious. Maybe the lesson isn't to get a dog instead of trying for friends—it's to be clear-eyed about which people in your life are actually there for you, versus which ones are there because circumstances aligned.