Who do the people you know, know?
“I am so thankful for my tennis team.” These are words that I definitely didn’t think I would ever say 10 years ago. As a girl who grew up without any hand eye coordination, the idea that I would enjoy playing a game that involves hitting a ball never crossed my mind. As a matter fact, I have very distinct memories of hours of backyard practice hitting a softball with my dad threw just so I wouldn’t look like a fool in middle school PE class.
Today, I play at the local park and the team has grown organically through our combined social networks. It is the embodiment of “who you know connects you to who they know.”
I joined the team many years ago because a coworker/friend needed more players on her beginner team. She showed up at my desk and said “You run, right?”, and when I confirmed that I did, her response was, “Great, I need you on my tennis team and we practice tonight.” I’m not exactly sure how she thought being a runner gave me any business on a tennis court, but she pointed me to the nearest Play It Again Sports where I could buy a racket and a skirt on my way home. Never one to back down from something mildly stupid, I headed to the store and told the guy working that I was headed to my very first tennis lesson and then he equipped me with a mediocre racket and a skirt that (sort of) fit.
I definitely didn’t think I would still be at this so many years later (we were a adult women’s beginner team with a dozen women who had never picked up a racket and didn’t know the service line from the baseline), but some of the most amazing women in my life have come from this group. We have vice presidents, teachers, stay at home moms, and me (on a journey defining my success on my own terms), but what I love most about this team is how we cheer for each other.
Sure, we cheer for each other during the matches, but we also cheer for each other during practice. We cheer for each other in our professional lives although almost none of us have overlapping careers and we cheer for each other in parenting. Without this team, there are more than a dozen women who I would not have in my life who support me in all the crazy things that I do…even the ones they don’t understand. I’ve never most of their families, I couldn’t tell you exactly what many of them do for a living or even where they work, but I know that when I lost my job they were all there to pick me up, when I told them I had this crazy idea to write a book they showed up at my launch party, and when I make an amazing shot on the tennis court they yell and scream for like I just won a grand slam title.
If you haven’t found those people in your life who will cheer for you no matter what, I encourage you to find them. It’s an essential part of your network: people who don’t compete with you at work, people whose performance has nothing to do with yours, people who you would otherwise never cross paths with, but people who want to see you succeed!