{"id":37011,"date":"2025-10-30T10:31:33","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T10:31:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-made-over-26-million-in-the-last-8-years-but-i-lost-friends-along-the-way-its-taken-time-to-learn-who-i-can-trust\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T10:31:33","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T10:31:33","slug":"i-made-over-26-million-in-the-last-8-years-but-i-lost-friends-along-the-way-its-taken-time-to-learn-who-i-can-trust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-made-over-26-million-in-the-last-8-years-but-i-lost-friends-along-the-way-its-taken-time-to-learn-who-i-can-trust\/","title":{"rendered":"I made over $26 million in the last 8 years, but I lost friends along the way. It&#8217;s taken time to learn who I can trust."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ff94e60be9845f2dc52605?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Lisa Johnson\"\/><figcaption>Lisa Johnson has found that some of her friendships changed after she became wealthy.<\/p>\n<p>Tori Ferenc for BI<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>This as-told-to essay is part of Lonely at the Top, a series that examines the link between wealth and loneliness. It is based on a conversation with <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/lisajohnsonstrategist\/?hl=en\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Lisa Johnson<\/em><\/a><em>, award-winning business strategist and CEO. It has been edited for length and clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Eight years ago, I was in \u00a335,000 of debt, or around $44,800 USD. I had toddler-aged twins and had just gotten remarried. We were struggling to afford rent and had to meticulously budget for food.<\/p>\n<p>I&#039;d decided not to return to my job as a personal assistant, as the pay was less than the cost of childcare. I looked into starting my own business and decided to set up a wedding planning company on a whim. I liked parties and naively saw wedding planning as an extension of that.<\/p>\n<p>It failed at first because I knew nothing about business. Since I didn&#039;t have any money to spend on learning to run one, I attended every free webinar I could find and read numerous library books on starting a business.<\/p>\n<p>Once I had learned about branding, messaging, and what made an ideal client, the business became profitable and in demand over the course of about a year. People started asking me how I had made it work, so I began teaching others how to start their own businesses online, first one-on-one, then in large groups.<\/p>\n<p>This story is part of a series, <strong>&quot;Lonely at the Top,&quot;<\/strong> which examines the impact of wealth on the relationships of millionaires. Read more:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>I felt lonely after getting rich, but then I met other millionaires.<\/li>\n<li>A millionaire loaned $1,000 to a relative. It caused a rift.<\/li>\n<li>Becoming a millionaire cost me my firefighter brotherhood \u2014 and left me lonelier than I expected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Between the wedding planning business and online coaching, I made \u00a360,000 in 2017. At that stage, there weren&#039;t really any costs to either business \u2014 I was running it all by myself from my phone.<\/p>\n<p>Then, I launched my first online course in 2018, and I made \u00a360,000 in one week. In 2020, during the month that the pandemic began, I launched another course and made more than that in one week.<\/p>\n<p>I just couldn&#039;t believe it.<\/p>\n<p>Over the last eight years, I have made over \u00a320 million.<\/p>\n<h2>Once I had money, some of my friendships changed<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ffa27a599d46a4ccc0e7d5?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Lisa Johnson\"\/><figcaption>Her family didn&#039;t treat her any differently, so she was surprised when some friends did.<\/p>\n<p>Tori Ferenc for BI<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I grew up on a council estate in England. No one made money there, and when they did, everyone thought it was because they were bad people. When I suddenly had money, I was worried about what people would think \u2014 and I was even more worried that wealth would change who I was.<\/p>\n<p>Even though I had been concerned my family would think differently of me, they didn&#039;t. They were proud of me for overcoming adversity and achieving success, and they always had my back.<\/p>\n<p>My family was so accepting that I hadn&#039;t expected to lose friends as a high earner \u2014 but I did in the early days. I think some people found it hard to reconcile who I was with the way my life was changing.<\/p>\n<p>I spoke often about money on social media \u2014 about how I was working hard to move myself away from debt and an ingrained mindset that money was a bad thing \u2014 and I often felt like that irritated a few of my friends.<\/p>\n<p>Talking about money in Britain is often seen as vulgar, but I&#039;ve always been upfront and honest about what is going well and what isn&#039;t \u2014 including in a financial sense. There were lots of comments that felt passive-aggressive, like: &quot;It&#039;s alright for you,&quot; &quot;It&#039;s OK for the lucky ones,&quot; and &quot;It&#039;s how the other half live.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>I don&#039;t feel as though I changed my behavior toward any of my friends, but some of them seemed to be different toward me. They just ghosted me \u2014 disappeared. It was a shock. None of them ever spoke to me about why our friendship was ending; I just felt like I was being dropped.<\/p>\n<p>Not all my friends reacted this way, and most of the people I lost were friends I&#039;d made at various workplaces over the years, rather than lifelong friends I&#039;d always had. In the end, it was a great opportunity to see who my real friends were.<\/p>\n<h2>It was also hard to trust new friends<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ffa2ca0be9845f2dc527cc?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Lisa Johnson\"\/><figcaption>Johnson says trusting people is harder now that she&#039;s a high earner.<\/p>\n<p>Tori Ferenc for BI<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The harder aspect of becoming a high earner was gaining friends \u2014 both in person and online \u2014 who weren&#039;t friends for the right reasons. Because my lifestyle changed \u2014 I went from living in a council house to a multimillion-dollar house, for example \u2014 my wealth became obvious, and I no longer knew whether people were being my friend because of what they could gain from me or because they genuinely liked me. Now, I&#039;m sadly always suspicious of people&#039;s motives when they want to be my friend.<\/p>\n<p>Some of these new friends would ask for something, and if I said no, I wouldn&#039;t hear from them again. People I trusted asked me for large sums of money for what they described as a major, life-altering issue. More often than not, I gave them the money because I knew what it was like not to have any, only to discover the reason was not what they had initially said. They often asked again, and I said no \u2014 their reaction was often silence. It was devastating.<\/p>\n<p>I got used to this, though, eventually.<\/p>\n<h2>I do have a good group of friends I trust, and some of them work with me now<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68ffa519c007ca8c2737b065?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Lisa Johsnson\"\/><figcaption>She has a group of about 20 good friends with whom she is close.<\/p>\n<p>Tori Ferenc for BI<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Now, I have a really good group of 20 friends, most of whom I have known for at least 10 years. They all knew me when I had nothing, and helped me and my family. I didn&#039;t realize how much I took them for granted, but I&#039;m so grateful for them now. I know I can trust them, because they liked me before I made my money. Though they&#039;ve never asked me for anything or treated me differently, every year, I do take them on a holiday \u2014 a yacht trip around Greece.<\/p>\n<p>As my business has grown, I have employed several family members and close friends. They had the skill sets I needed, and I trust them completely. My best friend since I was 12 is my finance director. My sister is my social media manager. My best friend of 15 years is my operations director.<\/p>\n<p>I want to make sure all my friends and family are taken care of. And we&#039;re all very good about knowing when I&#039;m not the boss, and when I am.<\/p>\n<p>While I don&#039;t set out to make new friends, I have met people with whom I have grown closer. I feel my &quot;friend radar&quot; is pretty well-tuned these days, but I still think twice about trusting new people I meet.<\/p>\n<p>Though I have fewer friends than I used to, the ones I do have are of great quality. The number of friends I have is less important to me than the few friendships I have with amazing and supportive people.<\/p>\n<p>I don&#039;t feel lonely with them by my side.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lisa Johnson has found that some of her friendships changed after she became wealthy. Tori Ferenc for BI This as-told-to essay is part of Lonely at the Top, a series that examines the link between wealth and loneliness. It is based on a conversation with Lisa Johnson, award-winning business strategist and CEO. It has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37012,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}