Living Intentionally - Spend It All Today (Part Deux)

Living Intentionally - Spend It All Today (Part Deux)

Be a Lovecat: amass and share knowledge, amass and share your network and be compassionate.^a —Tim Sanders

DO YOU KNOW someone who might be a great contact or friend to someone else?

Many of us waste our network, hoarding contacts in case we need a favor. I say spend your network on your friends and colleagues. Tim Sanders, in his book Love Is the Killer App, encourages us to use our network generously for the benefit of others. Some people understand this concept intuitively—they are “connectors” by nature.^b My girlfriend Donna is a master connector. She is generous with both her time and contacts, constantly working to ensure that people who need each other know each other.

But some of us must be reminded that our success is never entirely of our own making but is due in part to the goodness, kindness, and generosity of others. What goes around, comes around. And I’m afraid that what’s coming around for some women is a whole lot of ugly.

Let’s just call a spade a spade. Some women are downright stingy with their network. Seeing other women as competition, rather than collaborators, they cheat themselves of the joy that comes from working with other gals. They miss out on celebrating with other women when those women succeed. Is it jealousy or envy that prevents women from embracing their peers? A lack of confidence? Or is it this type of thinking: If you achieve a certain degree of success you might drain the available market. We might run out of success!

Girlfriend, just because you achieve some level of success doesn’t mean that I won’t. God’s world of possibilities is infinite for us all.

Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. (1 John 4:7)

Reach out and extend your network to friends and colleagues looking for a job, a business lead, or a housekeeper. Take a look at who is in your network. Are you sharing it? Spend your contacts.

^a Tim Sanders, Love Is the Killer App (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2003), 3.

^b Ibid., 81.