Your circle of friends are very important when you are trying to move your life forward. These are people that will either support you in your effort or hinder you. It is very important to analyze those around you because your future depends on it. You have to be willing remove people who don't fit in your vision. I tell the youth that I talk to that as you go and grow through life your friends are going to change. As you mature the things that you use to do don't interest you anymore because you realize how much wasted time you spent doing dumb and meaningless stuff. I tell them don't get too attached, especially in high school. Those friends will change from semester to semester as you have classes with different people. I will tell the adults the same thing. Understand the difference between a "friend" and a "work friend". Your "friends" you talk to outside of work about things other than work and people at work. Your "work friends"d have limited conversations and usually centered around something about work. Also, some of them are just nosy and what to know what you do, where you spend your money and things like that. They don't care about you only about what you do. Here's a question, how many of you still keep in touch with people from your previous jobs? If so, at what level?
I want to leave you with this thought, if when you look at the people around you and don't see anyone trying to grow beyond where they are now and complaining about where they are now, you need to re-evaluate those people. They will drag you down. Also, if they see you trying to move forward and they still do nothing, it's time for a change. I love this saying that heard a few years back "If you can't change the people around you, change the people around you."
Don't be afraid to let people go.