catching up with old friends

I drove to Akron today to begin a mentoring relationship with Alton Brown. Alton is the Executive VP/General Manager of the Akron Beacon Journal (a terrific newspaper by the way). I've asked Alton to mentor me on leadership.

We had lunch today and got caught up on all the "stuff." I haven't seen him since my old newspaper advertising days...over five years ago. We worked together in Columbus for Gannett.

While I was there I bumped in to another old friend, Bill Goddard. Bill and I go waaaay back. Bill hired me at the Columbus Dispatch about 12 years ago. Bill was the Classified Advertising Director. He hired me to manage the department's outside sales staff. We had some good times there.

Man, it is so much fun to get reacquainted with old friends. It's too bad we tend to let relationships slide. I've not done a good job of keeping in contact with old friends. Seeing Alton and Bill reminded me of how much I value those relationships.

I'm going to be meeting with Alton once a month to be mentored (we also talked about riding motorcycles together sometime soon).

Bill and I are going to try to get together for dinner sometime next week.

Here's a thought for you, my faithful blog readers: Which of your relationships have you let slide? Why not begin to rekindle the friendship. Call or visit an old friend and "catch up." You'll be glad you did.