Stay in Touch
Why you should make friends when you don't need them.
Author’s note:
Somehow the phrase “stay in touch” morphed into something you only say when someone quits their job, or moves far away. Like Texas. Or Florida…
But there’s real meaning behind the phrase, that should be brought to the foreground much, much earlier than when you’re about to have major distance between you.
That’s because staying in touch, when you don’t have an imminent need to do so, is actually the best time to build relationships and make friends.
This principle is what originally brought my co-founder GC Chew and I together. We first met through a friend of a friend in the games industry (you know how that goes). GC was looking for business development roles at game studios. That was my career path of choice, so having a call made sense. We exchanged some friendly advice, but didn’t have my team at Amazon didn’t have openings, and I didn’t have any immediate opportunities for him in my network. The conversation was jovial enough, but it didn’t go anywhere.
A few months go by, we passively watch each others’ (infrequent) Linkedin posts and accomplishments like watching seagulls out the backseat of an Uber.
But unlike most (~95%) of “friend of a friend” intros, GC and I started to spontaneously catch up every few months. To check in on each other’s progress, any new opportunities. We ended up just talking industry gossip and news, i.e. “Omg did you play X? I’ve heard it’ll be Game of the Year”… “ugh I wish, it’s on my Steam wishlist but I don’t have time to play. Plus I already bought these twenty other games on sale”.
Somewhere in those 1-2 years of once-in-a-while unscheduled calls, we became friends. And I started to look forward to those chats whenever they popped up. Like catching up with that close friend who moved away. But remember, you became friends before they moved away.
Earlier this year, GC and I were commiserating on how hard the job market was, and things clicked into place. “If it’s so hard to find the right job, why not just make it yourself?”
GC ended up creating his own opportunity in games business development, by co-founding Conduit with me as our Head of Business Development. Working with indies and publishers alike, to create new opportunities in games.
BTW - we’re overdue for a catch up.
Completely feel this