“What do you want?”
A few months back I phoned a colleague whom I hadn’t talk with in over ten years. After greeting me, he said, “What do you want Michael”? I said that I wanted nothing, that I just wanted to say ‘hi and how’s things’.
I asked why he asked me the ‘what do you want question’. He said that in his experience, when he received a phone call from a person he hadn’t heard from in a number of years, they usually wanted something from him.
The point of relaying this interaction is this. If you lost your job tomorrow – who would be the first five people you’d call? Is your current relationship as strong as you want it to be with those people? Have you taken them and their friendship for granted?
With those people in mind – what could you do now, to strengthen your relationship with them? (including things you could do for them).
Strengthening those relationships now will mean when you do need to phone the people for help, their first response won’t be, ‘What do you want?’
The how to apply/your call to action for this post: Identify the first five people you’d call if you lost your job. Contact them in the next two weeks, and then keep in regular contact with them.