The Power of Old Connections

I was admitted at Brown University for graduate studies for a year in the early 90s, which then became a 5 year PhD stay, and eventuality, a new life in the US. I remember later asking the admission officer why I was accepted and she said that the professor at my German university knew a professor at Brown who, at that time, was a rock star at the economics group.

All this is a quarter of a century behind me but I got reminded of this old connection when I talked to the hiring manager of a university I am applying to for a teaching position. It turned out that he is the son of arguably the best economist the US ever had. I told him that one of my German professors studied with him at MIT and I saw in his eyes how meaningful this connection was to him. Sadly, he said, fewer and fewer students even know of him.

Every conversation matters! Every interaction may have consequences in decades ahead. Search for meaning in every interaction, and let every interaction provide you with meaning over the years. Marketing and spirituality are not in conflict; just take interest in the person GOD sends your way and make the interaction part of the WAY. The Technische Universitaet Berlin, TU in short, still influences my life 30 years later. TU, ‘You’ in French, may just stand for ‘the Tao is U’.


The Way knew me decades before I knew myself. Let the power of connections, old and new ones, work for you.