My Mantra: Build Your Network

Another Insightful Contribution by Hugh MacLeod 
from his gapingvoid.com blog

I began my professional, post-university career in the notoriously insecure world of an advertising creative department.
Agencies lose their accounts all the time. A large account staying at one agency for two years is considered good going.
And when accounts were lost, jobs were lost along with them, end of story. Often it didn't matter how good at your job you were.
You could be a rock star one day and POOF! On the street overnight.
And this was normal. We never thought a job for life existed.
All we had was our work to fall back on. And the people we knew, and the people who knew us back.
All we had was our network. The network.
That's all anybody has, at the end of the day.
And now the rest of the world is learning that quickly.