I attended ten different schools between kindergarten and my senior year of high school. Ten.
I barely had time to memorize my locker combination before I was the new kid again.
Being the perpetual new kid isn't exactly a growth strategy. But it taught me some valuable skills. Fast.
I learned to read a room before I could find the pencil sharpener.
Who's running things? Who can I trust? Where's the trouble? And who's the quiet kid who's actually the smartest person in the room?
Always talk to that kid.
Years later, I realized those same questions applied to business.
Boardrooms. Conferences. First meetings. Different rooms, same dynamics.
I even spent more years at one company than I did in my entire K–12 education.
Along the way, I built a network and developed relationships that have lasted decades.
Others didn't. And that's okay.
Not every relationship needs to last twenty years to matter.
Some of the people who've had the biggest impact on my career were only in my life briefly. A timely introduction. An offhand comment. A conversation that changed how I thought about something.
You never know which connection will change your trajectory.
And that's the thing about networks. They don't grow in neat little org charts. They grow sideways, through introductions, shared experiences, and conversations that lead somewhere unexpected.
Opportunity lives in those connections.
To this day, few things get me more excited than a random text from someone I trust:
"Hey, can I introduce you to someone?"
Absolutely.
Because you never know where that introduction might lead.
It's also the mentality behind MAVERIX.
We read rooms. Build relationships. Connect dots. Understand what makes people tick.
And we recognize something I learned long before I ever stepped into a boardroom: You don't have to be in someone's life forever to make a lasting impact.
Sometimes you just have to be in the right room, with the right person, at the right time.