Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty

Dry Well

 

 

It’s the name of a book by Harvey Mackay…and boy is it a wise piece of advice when it comes to careers.  I cannot count the number of times I get an email or a phone call from someone who just got slammed with a restructuring, a downsizing, a firing, an merger, an acquisition…and now finds themselves out of a job.  They are suddenly very interested in speaking with me…meeting with me…to see “what’s out there”.  All of a sudden, the individual is intensely interested in networking, meeting for coffee, having lunch…you get the idea.

Does it work?  Sometimes.  Not very often.  Relationships aren’t a switch that can be flipped when it’s convenient for you, or only when you need something from someone else.  It’s actually bad form, in my view.  Relationships  and networks are like a garden.  They need tending…attention…love.  They need sunlight and water.  The time to start digging a well is not when you suddenly realize you are parched.  Those people usually end up dehydrated and dead.