Best Job Ever!

Chapter 16Career Plan Step #6: Your Community

True friends will always push you toward the great possibilities of your future. False friends will always chain you to the mistakes in your past.

—Seth Brown

When we think about building our careers, we tend to focus solely on ourselves. We worry about having the right skills to match the job we want or exhibiting the right behaviors to prove we are ready to take on more responsibility. While we do everything we can to increase our chances of landing the right job or getting the promotion, we often forget what may be the best advantage we have: our community and network of friends and associates.

A past neighbor of mine, who I will call Alan, disappeared one day. Alan was what I call the neighborhood guy. He was the guy who knows everyone. Alan had a perfect lawn that he mowed twice a week. (There was no way he was trusting that job to anyone else!) There wasn't a golf course in the state that looked as good as Alan's lawn. He was always outside and I never passed his house when he wasn't there to give me a wave and a hello. Then one day Alan mysteriously disappeared.

I didn't notice for several days that Alan was missing until I saw that his lawn was looking overgrown and several dandelion weeds were popping up. I almost hit my brakes and screeched to a halt because dandelion weeds in Alan's yard must mean the world was coming to an end. I realized I hadn't seen Alan all that week. Something must be wrong.

So I stopped and knocked ...