Ethel Barrymore nailed it when she said “It’s really good to have friends before you need them.” Cultivating circles of friends is critical to your survival not to mention having a laugh and making a living. But busy women don’t often think they have the time to develop new friendships and we aren’t always willing to be strategic about courting the ones that will benefit us. Heaven forbid we are seen as too opportunistic or concerned for ourselves. But we must choose wisely and your parents were right when they said who your friends are speaks volumes about you.

Everything has to do with your ability to be a good friend and deliberately seek out friends according to their caliber…who they know, what they do well, what they bring to your party and what they can do for you. No, I am not saying you need to ditch your friend who just lost her job, whose parent died or is in a funk right now. I know someone is thinking how cold I am being and how I seemed like a nice girl in my past postings… bear with me please–because we have to look at this.  (This in itself is the root cause of why people spend time courting the wrong prospects–btw.)

If you consider yourself a nice, kind or a good girl this all flies in the face of how we are groomed. We take care of others, we do the right thing and we watch out for the underdog so we find ourselves tired rather than energized. Developing and leveraging your connections is really important. Your portfolio of friends needs to be diverse and only you can decide based on your values and objectives where these people will come from. So before diving into how you can scout -the most important thing is that you need to seek friends who will support your growth and contribute in meaningful ways to you and vice versa. New friends should be on an adventure themselves and since they are they are generally more encouraging, optimistic, curious, and resourceful and creative minded…oh and interesting too. In their presence you feel everything is possible and you don’t have to apologize or reel it in or dial it back.

Be on the look out for:
Women who are on a path you’d like to be on yourself.
People who have a knack for attracting money.
Seasoned women with advanced degrees and graduated from School of Hard Knocks.
Activists with a cause.
People in key positions.
Women affiliated with spiritual organizations, religious, political organizations.
Women who golf, play tennis, mountain-bike or dance, sing, drum.
Friends of friends.
You get the idea. Appreciate your own brilliance since you have something valuable to offer others too.

If you know any amazing people you think I should connect with please make an introduction.