personally surround myself with people who understands me, and they also contribute so many things to my life, they have my back, they are available when I need them. Avoid bad friend and you will get to you goal.
A word said "No road is too long in the company of a good friend".
Let me just picked this out of all what you have said and I will say that is the best thing we should learn to do in life ,no matter who will are choosing in life as friend,we must be very careful and make sure that those will are choosing are those that will add value to our life one way or the other