Today I had lunch with a friend that I met via this blog and with whom I feel I've developed a genuine, if casual friendship.
Early on we explored ways in which we might work together. Didn't find one.
We did find that we have many interests in common and can readily stretch a lunch hour to 90 minutes. We share a genuine interest in business and have followed from rather different perspectives many of the same stories. As a result, I think we value each other's thoughts and opinions.
All day I've reflected on the lunch and thought about how much I enjoyed having a peer with whom to have this discussion. It is a different sort of relationship than a mentor/mentee relationship.
My friend and I today shared lots of investing ideas because we both think a lot about the companies we invest in, but from very different perspectives. I find tremendous value in the exchange of ideas.
And so, I add to my thinking about networking for entrepreneurs and middle-market company executives the need to have some friends with whom you can share ideas.
A friend doesn't have to be someone who wears the same hat to work in the same sort of job, but it should be someone you consider a peer, someone whose opinion you respect and who respects yours. A CEO might well value the opportunity to eat burgers with a cattle rancher, because they just might find that the cattle respond to leadership in the same way middle managers do. Or the CEO might find that the rancher's hedging strategies for beef prices have relevance to the CEO's foreign currency exposure.
In any case, having a friend with whom you can share some ideas is healthy and helpful to anyone.
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