Always show up. Cocktail parties, neighborhood parties, church, weddings, funerals, club events, professional meetings, interviews, volunteering, community activities and events.
Even if these things are not your cup of tea - which, for many guys, they are not - at least one good thing comes out of each attendance. I guarantee it. This is not a mercenary attitude. It's an attitude of connection and respect. Except for funerals, I always go somewhat grudgingly because I am naturally taciturn without much to say but I am never sorry that I did "suit up and show up," and at least tried to be engaging and humorous.
I bring this up because I have had several highly serendipitous encounters in the past couple of weeks which have been good fun for me and will be helpful to my kids' lives.
My life, and the lives of our kids, would be quite different if they, and I, did not apply the Woody Allen theory: "70% of success is showing up." My second great job came from a random show-up, and our dearest friends today came from random meets in friendly surroundings.
Come to think of it, meeting the future Mrs. BD was highly random and would never have occurred under normal circumstances. That was good, because otherwise the mate might have been a more socially-predictable and ultimately boring one. One must make space to let serendipity happen.
