Opportunity rarely comes from your inner circle. The people who change your direction are rarely the ones you talk to every day. Most of us spend our time inside a pretty tight circle. It’s the people we work with, trust, and rely on. The ones who know what we’re good at and have seen us do it over and over again. Those relationships matter. They’re where you get sharper, where you refine your thinking, where you build confidence in what you already know you can do.
But there’s a limit to how much can actually change inside that same group. Over time, the conversations start to feel familiar. The perspectives don’t shift that much. You get clearer, more focused, more defined… but not necessarily different. And when you’re trying to move into something new, that distinction becomes important.
Because the next step usually doesn’t come from the people who already understand you. It tends to come from just outside of that circle - from your “Weak Ties.” From someone you haven’t spoken to in a while, or an introduction that feels a little random, or a conversation that doesn’t fully make sense yet. The kind of thing that’s easy to overlook because it doesn’t feel fully formed or immediately useful.
I was actually reminded of that today. I found myself saying yes to something that didn’t have a clear outcome attached to it. (More to come on this later!) It isn’t obvious where it will lead, but it feels worth stepping into - but most importantly because that’s the power and opportunity of my weak ties.
So this week, instead of looking for the answer inside the conversations you’re already having, it might be worth looking just outside of them. Reaching out to someone you haven’t spoken to in a while, following a thread that doesn’t feel fully clear yet, or saying yes to something that sits just beyond your usual pattern.
You don’t need to know exactly where it leads.
And that’s usually the point.