Who’s on your BOD?

Every successful company has a board of directors sets the strategic direction, and I believe that a personal board of directors is one of the most important things you can have in your career.

When I was a student at Georgia Tech, my friends and I tried to avoid Friday afternoon classes so we could hang out over beer and pizza, so when a college friend came to town for work, we planned a dinner at Rocky Mountain Pizza to catch up. I mentioned to one of my students that I was meeting a friend for dinner and was warned that it might be crowded because it was trivia night, but truth be told, we were in and out before the first trivia patron even arrived at the bar.

While some things (like the time we go out for dinner) have changed, so much hasn’t. We laughed, we ate, we shared stories of recent success and failures, and we texted pictures of our buffalo chicken pizza to our friends who are scattered around the country to make them jealous (okay, that part was new…I’m so old that we didn’t text when I was in college…we only used our cellphones on nights and weekends IFYKYK).

Unlike some of my of my college friends, “catching up” with Carrie isn’t something I only do once in a while. Twenty-something years later, she is still someone who I turned to for feedback in all aspects of my life.

Although growing up in different cities, our children are growing up together, so I consider her an important parenting resource.

Although we live hours apart, we stay up today on each other’s lives, so I consider her an important sounding board.

And although you have never worked together, we trust each other when it comes to professional counseling.

She is a critical member of my Board of Directors. Who’s on yours?