Published in the San Diego Union-Tribune, February 16, 2026
by Neil Senturia
In the past three weeks, I have attended four networking events and two museum openings. Work the room, look for opportunities, people, deals, money, whatever. You are there because you are looking.
OK, I am old, I still hand out business cards — the bump my phone to your phone thing is cute, but I don’t really get it. I like business cards because I can write on the back of them, so I can remember why I took or gave the card in the first place.
I am not sure my stories are a harbinger of anything but here we go.
The museum. It is a juried exhibition, stuff is for sale. I see a piece I like. It has a red dot. Sold. I ask the museum staff for the artist’s email. I send her a request to buy something else from her. Not a word.
Barbara and I go to her business school holiday party. I work the room, hand out a half-dozen business cards. Offers to work with, sell to or employ. Nada. OK, Neil, consider the possibility that no one is buying what you are selling.
Another museum. One of the artists specifically asks in his video if someone wants to buy his sculpture. I am interested. Send him an email. Nothing.
A big event with 200 young people, ostensibly looking for employment or internships. I work the room, get one really good response. So, see it can happen. We actually hire the guy.
The featured speaker is a public relations expert. She tells her story of following through and meeting people and networking and finding success. I think she is terrific, perfect for a place in my little company. I corner her, tell her that I am dazzled and want to meet. The business card. She says she would be delighted. Still waiting.
Barbara and I go to another fancy blah blah. I find a young woman with perfect skills. Give her my business card. She promises I will hear from her. She gets back to me and mentions that she makes over $600K per year. Well, I was right, she was perfect. Can’t afford perfect.
Here is the entrepreneurial mantra courtesy of Woody Allen, “Eighty percent of success is just showing up.” The other 20% is answer the damn phone even if you don’t know who is calling. It probably isn’t your mother but you can’t be sure. Maybe she is in a prison in a foreign country making the one phone call she is allowed.
Now here is a puzzle for my readers. Think about how you got your last job, how you met your current wife, who you met on your last trip that became a friend because you shared your ketchup with their French fries.
The world turns on relationships. Relationships occur from networking. Seems obvious to me. Maybe I am simply past my sell-by-date. An old man wandering in the dark.
Much has been written about the coming AI revolution. One of the most prescient of the gang is Leopold Aschenbrenner. He was part of OpenAI’s “Superalignment” team. He says the “intelligence explosion” is coming and there is nothing you can do about it except embrace it with a real sense of urgency.
Various pundits have argued that you have only a few years to make your money or your mark before the AI revolution (or the one coming in the streets) eats your lunch. This has existential echoes. Welcome to the new underclass.
I talked to my 40-year-old son. He says age 20 is terrific today. You have grown up with the internet and all the tools. AI is second nature to you, and you are hungry and energetic.
Forty is at the edge. If you have not yet found a safe niche, you might dodge the bullet, but don’t dawdle. Sixty is dead man walking. You just learned to text, and you wouldn’t know TikTok from an alarm clock. Instagram, no way. That 20-year-old kid can work harder, longer and smarter than you. You are blocking his path; it is rational to be scared.
Seventy-four, well, that’s your columnist. And I’m doing it with mirrors.
Rule No. 817: “Networking isn’t how many people you know, it’s how many people know you.” Amit Kalantri