Most good opportunities do not arrive as public announcements.
They arrive as a text sent while someone is walking between meetings.
“Do you know anyone solid for this?”
“I have one seat left at dinner.”
“A friend is hiring. Who should I speak to?”
“We’re looking at a small round. Not broadly circulating it yet.”
I have watched people assume these texts go to the most impressive person in someone’s contacts. The biggest title. The strongest résumé. The person who seemed most hungry at the last event.
Sometimes that is true.
More often, the text goes to the person who creates the least risk for the sender.
That may sound cynical. It is also useful.
An insider is not merely deciding whether you are talented. They are deciding whether attaching their name to yours will make them look perceptive or careless. Whether you will follow through without being chased. Whether you will make them regret putting you in a room. Whether the recipient of the introduction will come back and say, “That was a grea…
