Then something changed: He decided to meet creative folks in San Francisco.
“I did the only thing I could think of,” he writes, “I made a list of web sites I thought were well-designed, figured out who designed them, and sent a cold email to the designer telling them I was a new designer in the area and asking if they’d like to get coffee or a beer sometime.”
When someone asks you to lunch (or rock climbing), say yes.
“Suddenly I wasn’t all alone in Oakland anymore,” Watkins writes.
Though he’d be let go from this startup job a few months later, he had friends who could help him find contract work while he sought out a full-time gig. Eventually he was introduced to the folks at Zoosk, and suddenly he was “off to the races,” designing products for millions. And after that, Formspring, Amazon, and Etsy.
The lessons
Watkins writes that he gets “overwhelmed by feelings of gratitude” when he thinks on all the people who helped him–though they totally didn’t have to. So now he answers those cold email messages that come his way every so often–that was him, then.
There’s a lot to be learned from his story:
- As 99u observes, when you’re kind to people–and thus open up opportunities–you can change their lives.
- You need a lot of hustle–and coffee dates–to be let into any industry.
- Kindness is a form of networking.
- As John A. Daly writes in Advocacy, when someone asks you to lunch (or rock climbing) say yes.
Be kind.
Related articles
- Be Kind (capwatkins.com)
Theresa Talks 