Maitei!

The older I become, the more I realize that many of the most meaningful opportunities in my life did not emerge from networking.

They emerged from relationships.

I understand that networking is an important skill.

I have attended the events.

I have exchanged the business cards.

I have smiled politely while balancing a plate of appetizers and trying to remember who was who.

There is certainly value in all of that.

Yet when I look backward, very few of the people who truly changed my life arrived through those channels.

They arrived because somebody stayed connected.

A birthday message.

A quick note.

A conversation after several months of silence.

A simple “I was thinking about you today.”

Those tiny gestures often mattered far more than any carefully orchestrated strategy.

Years ago, when I was doing more support work for businesses and entrepreneurs, I noticed something curious.

The people who consistently seemed to attract opportunities were not necessarily the smartest.

They were not always the most talented.

They were rarely the loudest.

What they possessed was something much more subtle.

People remembered them.

And they remembered other people.

If someone changed jobs, they noticed.

If someone experienced a loss, they reached out.

If someone achieved a milestone, they celebrated it.

Not because they wanted something.

Because they cared.

There is a difference.

People can feel it.

I certainly can.

One of my favorite aspects of working in a restaurant is that it constantly reminds me of this truth.

A guest visits.

Then disappears for months.

Sometimes even years.

Then one day the door opens and there they are again.

We greet one another.

We catch up.

We discover what happened in the meantime.

A new grandchild.

A new career.

A move to another city.

A difficult challenge overcome.

Life continued while neither of us was looking.

And yet the connection remains.

I find that beautiful.

The modern world often encourages us to think in terms of audience, reach, influence, followers, and scale.

Those things have their place.

But I am increasingly convinced that life is built through something smaller.

Something quieter.

A handful of people who genuinely know you.

A handful of people you genuinely know.

Relationships nurtured over years rather than transactions completed in moments.

Many of the opportunities that shaped my life began with someone saying:

“I thought of you.”

Or:

“You came to mind.”

Or:

“I know someone you should meet.”

Those are powerful words.

And they almost never arrive from strangers.

They arrive from relationships.

So perhaps this week there is someone you have not spoken to in a while.

Perhaps there is a former colleague.

An old friend.

A mentor.

A cousin.

Someone whose name appears in your thoughts from time to time.

Send the message.

Make the call.

Leave the note.

Not because you need something.

Not because you have a plan.

Simply because connections, like gardens, flourish when they are tended.

The world can feel surprisingly large when we drift apart.

And wonderfully small when we remember one another.

Mis mejores deseos,
Tammie