The best friend a young professional could have is not an actual friend, but a mentor.
A friendly and cordial relationship between a mentor and mentee is great, the purpose of having a mentor is access to knowledge and experience, not being a wingman.
Every potential mentor is not created equal and will not have gained an equal amount of experience and wisdom. You will probably go through more mentors in your life than you would expect, and lose more than a few mentor/mentee relationships due to unexpected and never fully explained circumstances.
But you do get some say in potential mentors. You should be on the lookout for people with the qualities that you want to follow. They, of course, have the right to choose or refuse to mentor you
A good mentor is a living blueprint to follow for building the career you’re working toward.
A good mentor is a living instruction booklet for how to set goals and chase dreams
A good mentor offers easy to access to an index with the exact answer you want from a teacher who has made enough mistakes so that you don’t want necessarily have to.
These trailblazers exist for a reason. They cleared the path for those who are to come after them. Some willingly. Some reluctantly. Most are willing to give of themselves to ensure others that come after them don’t have to go through the trial and error but to do perform the necessary work.
Find yourself a mentor in the field you are pursuing and take their advice to heart. A good mentor will want to pass their knowledge along to future generations for both the common good and the personal ego. And both are a good thing.