"Its trust-o-riffic!"

Business is about relationships. The ones you make, the ones your break, and the ones that continually make a positive impact. I learned very quickly that you need to make all the "friends" you can get. People are out for numero uno and have no qualms about fucking over their competitors to "get theirs". With that being said, the more people you can have drinking YOUR Kool Aid the better... (you're thinking "no shit, everybody knows this). But the one thing that 99% of young graduates DON'T KNOW and consistently get BURNED on is... the confusion of the Ally and the Confidant...

Friends can be broken down into two categories in the business world: Allies and Confidants. To succeed in this wonderful thing called life, you will need to fine tune your trust-o-meter as quick as possible so you can distinguish between the two...

Confidant: Someone you can deeply trust regardless of the situation. He/she will always defend your name and act in your best interest.
Ally: Someone who shares the same self-interests at a point in time, but who is also a competitor. He/she can and will turn on you when their self-interests are no longer aligned with yours.

As a rule of thumb for evaluating relationships in any new environment...observe, trust, and then verify. If you make the mistake of confusing a confidant and an ally...you will be crushed.