Success Quote by Arnold H. Glasow

Friendship, in Glasow's hands, isn't the syrupy cheer squad of greeting-card myth. It's a guardrail. "A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down" frames loyalty as selective interference: the best friend is mostly invisible, not because they don't care, but because they respect your momentum. The line flatters independence while sneaking in a moral limit to autonomy. You can make your choices, even your dumb ones, but the moment those choices turn into a fall, a real friend becomes an obstacle on purpose.

The genius is in the double meaning of "going down". It reads like physical danger and social decline at once: spiraling into addiction, bad relationships, financial recklessness, self-pity. Glasow, a businessman, writes with the pragmatist's bias for outcomes. Friendship here is a form of risk management. It isn't expressed through constant advice (noise), but through well-timed friction (signal). That makes the sentiment feel modern: boundaries, agency, and intervention are all competing values, and Glasow resolves the tension with a clean rule.

There's also a quiet rebuke aimed at the meddler. Many people claim they're "just being honest" when they're really trying to steer your life for their comfort. Glasow draws a bright line: if you're not "going down", stay out of the way. If you are, get in it. The subtext is permission for hard love, but only when it counts.