I heard that you can start your own corporation, like a guild system? That true?

Yeah, all corporations except for starting corporations are run by the players. A leadership role is hard work though because you have to recruit and keep players interested, at least until you tell other people to do it for you. If you're looking to lead fleets you also would need to train leadership skills. And selling/purchasing items for the corporation will require industry and business skills. It's really something you shouldn't do starting out. At least in my opinion. If you really want to start a corporation you can get the opinions of other players on EVE's forums and see what's best for you.

This game sounds nuts... I like it.

It's great if you have the time for it. I'm sure your body is ready.

My friend said he is willing to give it a try, said he played for an hour or so and enjoyed it but never really got in depth with it, would playing with a friend like that be advised? Or is it a solo learning process?

It's good to have a friend around to help you out. I've only done missions individually so I can't give you a valid opinion on cooperative issues. I only started about 12 days ago, but I did have an account back in 09'. I was in a fleet battle once in nullsec, it was quite a thrill. A frigate among capital ships with nothing but a spherical shield between me and the enemy fleet. One of our facilities was under attack so we gathered this large fleet to counter-attack. My role was to disable other frigates and cruisers with electronic warfare then let my fleet destroy them. On my new account, I have only been helped once. A friend of mine helped me with a simple level 2 mission by coming in a Tech 2 Frigate. It was an armor tanking vessel but rather than using lasers as an Amarr ship usually would, it had several rocket launchers. He destroyed my enemies as fast as they nearly destroyed me. Some things in that game are truly worth waiting to see.