Isn't always necessarily a good way to stay ahead, either, unless you never guess wrong. If one of those little people you fake-befriended and then got rid of ends up in a position where you need something from them in the future, you're screwed. A lot of people end up in random places you might not expect, and often remember how people treated them when they were "unimportant".

"If one of those little people you fake-befriended and then got rid of ends up in a position where you need something from them in the future, you're screwed."

Or as my father put it, "The people you meet on the way up are the people you meet on the way down."

I picked on a kid when I was really young. Now he plays baseball for Stanford and I'm a desk jockey.

In some environments, that's an expected and positive thing. My dad was in the Marines between '45 and '69 and when you made corporal or sergeant, you weren't allowed to go out drinking with the privates and PFC's anymore. In a hierarchical system you don't fraternize with the people below you. It only gets in the way when you have to try and lead them.