Are you in business? If so you know how tough it can be. Sure the highs are high (there is nothing so great as winning a new piece of business after pitching your heart out) but the lows can set you reeling (5 years of doing exemplary work and the client decides they want to test “new blood”) and through it all you must persevere and come out stronger on the other side of the disappointments.

I’ve been in business for 27 years and certainly know the drill! and while I’m incredibly self motivated and committed to growing my business I know that there is one thing that has always helped me to get through to the other side of disappointments and challenges. My friends.

Sure my family sustains me and I know they always have my back but when I have a business hiccup I often turn to my business contacts for advice, solace and empathy. Many of them have experienced similar hiccups and their insights and information help me see solutions that I might not have seen otherwise.

These are my friends or perhaps more accurately my business friends. Like most people I have different types of friends. Friends with whom I share a history going back to grammar school, friends with whom I have little in common except for a shared love of a hobby, friends that I turn to with all sorts of personal issues, challenges and joys but my business friends are the ones to whom I turn when I need business advice.

It’s incredible but many of these business friendships were started at a networking meeting. Others came about because we were both speakers at an event or perhaps were on the same panel. Some of these business friendships are relatively new and others go back 10-15 years or more. Many have now morphed into personal friendships as well.

And here’s what I know. I don’t think that I could do it without them. I feel so unbelievably fortunate that they are in my life and I hold their friendships in the highest regard.

And so to all my friends…thank you for being there and sharing the ride. I hope that you feel that I have your back too.