"Never Contract Friendship with A Man That Is Not Better Than Thyself" - Confucius

It took me hours to think of the meaning of this particular proverb of Confucius. What did he mean with this?

If you make a contract friendship with a friend, are you going to find out first the level of standard he has? If you know fully well your standard does not meet his standard, are you going to just back off and find another one? Does this proverb points us to the "harmonious balance" that Confucius always stressed during his time?

This is how I understand this proverb if I think it on the negative side. I don't know if my reader agrees. If I make a contract friendship with such a friend, there will be no balance between us because where knowledge is concerned, I know more than him. There are possibilities for me to be demanding, to always look down on him, will seldom listen to his ideas, might be disrespectful to him...and so on. Respect between the two of us will not exist and the break-up as friends is inevitable that in the end, we shall end up as enemies.

If your understanding will be the same as my understanding, you will lose a friend. This will happen because if your attitude will be that way, your friend will get hurt. He will feel insecure, he will develop a self-pity attitude, he will think that you are treating him badly, and eventually a feeling of anger in his heart towards you will develop that can possibly harm you both, not only on your relationship as friends, but there may be a more harmful event if you both cannot overcome your emotions.

However, on the positive side, since you are more better than him, and since you want to have him as your friend, you will earn his respect if you will do the opposite of the negative possibilities I stated above. You will adjust yourself to the level of knowledge that he has. This is to balance the situation. You will help him lift up his self-esteem by asking if he has any ideas where you can work out together for a project that can benefit you both to strengthen more of your friendship. In case that his ideas will not meet your standard, you can politely tell your friend that his ideas is good and you can make it better if you combine you ideas together to come up of a better result of your plans. Your relationship then will be more stronger as friends and you can prove that "two heads is better than one".

It's easier said than done of course, but it cal always be possible if respect between the two of you is always exercised. 

If the proverb of Confucius is on the positive side, then maybe what he means was, in a deeper thought, he taught us to find a way to balance any certain situation or circumstances, no matter how difficult it is, to have a harmonious relationship with a friend regardless of whatever level of standard he has. And so, the "harmonious balance" that he stressed will happen.