The Power of Networks

What Leaving Taught Me About Who Stays

One thing I've noticed since leaving my university role is how professional relationships evolve. Some people I worked with for years have drifted away. When the meetings stop, when the decisions are no longer yours to make, when you're no longer representing an institution, the reason for staying in touch can fade. That's part of professional life. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, and I've stopped taking it personally. Some relationships are built around a role. When the role ends, so does the relationship. That's not betrayal. It's just how it works.

What I've valued more are the people who stayed anyway. They've checked in without needing anything from me. They've asked about my doctoral work and actually wanted the answer. They've shared ideas, made introductions, sent opportunities my way, and encouraged me as I build a consulting practice from the ground up. Those relationships were never about my title. They were about me, and leaving made that distinction impossible to miss.

This chapter has also put me in front of people I never would have met if I had stayed. Some of the best conversations I've had this year came from being outside one institution, one region, one professional circle. Leaving closed some doors. It opened others I didn't know were there. Networks are not fixed. They grow if you stay open to them and show up as yourself instead of your title.

I spent twenty-five years building relationships tied to specific roles and institutions, and for a long time I didn't separate the two in my own mind. Watching some of those relationships fade while others deepened taught me the difference between a network built around a position and one built on trust. One disappears when the position ends. The other doesn't.

To everyone who has continued to pour into me during this transition, thank you. Whether you've shared advice, made an introduction, invited me to collaborate, or just reached out to see how things are going, I notice it, and I don't take it for granted. Starting a consulting business is exciting and humbling, sometimes in the same afternoon, and the people who have stayed in this with me are the reason it feels possible.