The book 'How to Be a Friend (In an Unfriendly World): Lessons on Connection' by award-winning filmmaker Barnet Bain has been ranked #25 among the 50 Best Self-Help Books of 2025 by Balanced Achievement, an online publication focused on human wellness through spirituality, psychology, and personal development. This recognition comes as the publication notes that loneliness represents one of the defining challenges of modern life, positioning Bain's work as a thoughtful response grounded in awareness and compassion.
Drawing from his work at Columbia University's Spirituality Mind Body Institute, Bain reframes friendship as an ongoing practice of reflection, emotional honesty, and intentional engagement rather than a skill to be mastered. The book approaches connection as a way of relating that supports self-understanding, resilience, and meaning, offering an alternative to performance-based approaches to relationships. This perspective arrives at a critical time when digital interactions often replace genuine human connection, making Bain's framework particularly relevant for business and technology leaders navigating increasingly isolated professional environments.
The book's commercial success further validates its relevance, having reached #1 on Amazon among new releases in interpersonal relations shortly after its December 9 publication and #32 on Amazon's list of books about friendship. Additionally, BookBub named it one of 10 Books to Help You Keep Your New Year's Resolutions, suggesting its practical applications extend beyond theoretical discussion. Originally developed from Bain's Columbia University master's course for psychologists, the book grew from real conversations about how people connect, listen, and maintain kindness even under challenging circumstances.
For technology executives and business leaders, Bain's approach offers strategic implications for workplace culture and leadership development. The book provides simple ways to connect during overwhelming periods, tools for everyday friendship including listening without fixing and speaking without wounding, and reflections that meet readers where they are rather than offering lofty advice. In an industry often characterized by rapid innovation and transactional relationships, Bain's emphasis on slowing down and practicing intentional engagement could influence organizational approaches to team building, employee retention, and collaborative innovation.
The recognition from Balanced Achievement highlights a growing intersection between personal development literature and professional leadership frameworks. As artificial intelligence and remote work continue transforming how people interact, Bain's work provides human-centered counterpoints to purely technological solutions for connection. His background as creator of acclaimed films including the Oscar-winning 'What Dreams May Come' and 'Jesus'—translated into 2,245 languages and cited by The New York Times as potentially the most widely seen film in history—brings a narrative approach to what might otherwise be abstract concepts. More information about the author and his work is available at https://BarnetBain.com.
For business leaders, the book's recognition signals shifting priorities in professional development literature, where emotional intelligence and relational skills are gaining parity with technical competencies. As organizations increasingly recognize the business costs of workplace isolation and disconnection, works like Bain's offer frameworks for building more resilient, collaborative environments. The book's practical tools for maintaining boundaries while staying open-hearted could inform leadership approaches in high-pressure technology sectors, where burnout and turnover present significant challenges. This recognition within the self-help category suggests that relationship-building is being reframed not as a soft skill but as a critical component of sustainable success in increasingly complex professional landscapes.
