Time after time I was passed emails and chat transcripts with baseless accusations of criminal behaviour and boasts that I was about to be arrested, all attempts at ruining my credibility and driving me out of business - but instead of responding, I got on with my job.
Though my first instinct was to follow my emotions and respond in kind, friends and clients calmed me down and gave me good advice and the result: I ended up with a healthy business while my antagonists fled the country owing money.
It took everything I had not to react and I learned that the real measure of a person's strength is their ability to control their actions. As Gandhi once said: "All your scholarship would be in vain if at the same time you do not build your character and attain mastery over your thoughts and your actions".
And the reason I got good advice, was purely the company I had chosen to keep. The Greek philosopher Epictetus is quoted as saying: "The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."
