Tribes and magic? Has Justin gone wacky under Karl’s cover? Karl is the name of the fog that rolls into the city each day, and no, it hasn’t driven me totally insane yet.
I’m talking about tribes in the sense of the communities you align yourself with and the specific people that make up your network. I’m talking about Magic in the sense of experiences/moments that are rare and whimsical.
But all that doesn’t exactly fit in the title slot^
The event that sparked this blog post was when I had the chance to catch up with an old friend from high school, Benjamin St. John, he was in the city for a few hours to shoot a promotional video for Wix.com at their SF offices. I saw his Instagram story and sent him a text to see if he could meet up (social media isn’t entirely useless/superficial kids) and he had a few hours to chat before his flight home. We probably haven’t spoken face-to-face in about 3 years because of all we had going on. I got the chance to talk with Ben for about 3 hours, and it felt like we hadn’t lost much time at all.
Ben had started his own tech company back in Michigan and is working on building it up. We quickly caught up on each other’s personal lives and before I knew it, we were hugging goodbye just before his Uber whisked him away.
Now, this story isn’t exactly about what we talked about, so much as the way we talked about it and how we played off of each other. When I talk to Ben I get inspired and feel motivated because we both understand one another and we come from similar circles. There was a bit of nostalgia in the air as well, the ‘ole high school days, you get it.
Even though what we both do is very different from his software engineer focus and my sales development experience, we were able to help each other with some useful networking connections.
Having a great conversation that results in useful action items for both parties, lasts only 3 hours, and unites old friends? I’d say that’s pretty darn magical. I need more of this in my life.
Now, I could’ve talked with him much longer had he not had a plane to catch, but everything did work out really well and I’m very thankful I had those 3 hours with Ben.
If you needed any more evidence that it was a magical moment for my tribe: This happened 3 weeks ago, and not only does it stick in my memory, but I was inspired enough to write a whole blog about it after writing nothing for over two months. Alakazam, as they say in the magic business.