You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.

Standing for something costs you friendships

Most of us are taught to minimize conflict, to be liked, to smooth things over. We internalize the idea that enemies are failures—signs we did something wrong. But Hugo flips this: he suggests that having enemies might actually be evidence of integrity, proof that you've taken a real position instead of just drifting along.

This matters because it gives permission to stop apologizing for boundaries or beliefs. You don't need unanimous approval to be a good person. In fact, the moments when you've upset someone are often the moments you refused to bend toward what they wanted. That coworker who resents you for pushing back on their bad idea, the family member frustrated by your different life choices, the person who disliked you for saying no—these tensions sometimes signal that you had the backbone to stand for something.

The non-obvious part: this doesn't mean seeking out conflict or being needlessly combative. It means accepting that principled living naturally creates friction. You won't be everyone's favorite person, and that's not a bug—it's sometimes the cost of not being a ghost.