Key Insight #1​

 

I learned how important it is to build and maintain relationships. This became especially clear to me through my experiences in the sports industry. I learned that you never really know where a connection is going to lead or when someone you met in the past could become an important part of your future.My best example of this came from my experience with the PGA of America. I met someone through the PGA during an earlier experience and made a good connection with him. After that experience was over, I went on with school and everything else I had going on. About a year later, I decided to reach out to him and send him a text. I honestly did not think much of it when I sent it. I was just reaching back out and keeping the connection going. That one text ended up changing a lot for me. The conversation eventually led to an opportunity to work for the PGA of America. What surprised me most was that I did not have to go through a normal interview process. The connection I had made a year earlier was enough for someone to know who I was and give me an opportunity. That experience showed me that networking is much more than just meeting people and getting their contact information. Before this, I thought of networking as something you did when you were looking for an internship or a job. I now look at it differently. Networking is something that should happen throughout your career. It is about building relationships with people, making a good impression, and staying in contact even when you are not looking for anything from them. Once I started working for the PGA, I also realized how many relationships are involved in putting on a major sporting event. I worked with people from different departments, vendors, supervisors, and other members of the event staff. I learned that being good at your job is important, but so is how you work with the people around you. Being dependable, communicating well, and having a good attitude can make people want to work with you again. I also learned that maintaining a connection does not have to be complicated. I did not send that text expecting someone to give me a job. I just reached out. That made me realize that sometimes people make networking harder than it needs to be. You do not always need to have a specific reason to reach out to someone. A simple message asking how someone is doing or letting them know you appreciated working with them can be enough to keep a relationship going. My experience with the PGA also gave me more confidence when it comes to meeting and talking to new people. When I was working at the tournaments, I knew that every person I interacted with could potentially be someone I would work with again someday. That did not mean I treated every conversation like I was trying to get something out of it. Instead, I tried to be someone that people enjoyed working with and could rely on. This connects to what I learned in my Sport and Entertainment Management classes because the sports industry is very relationship-driven. There are a lot of moving parts in sports, and no one person can do everything on their own. Events depend on people communicating and working together. Your reputation can also follow you from one job or event to another. Someone you work with at one event could end up working with you again somewhere completely different. My PGA experience made this very real for me. I was able to take something as simple as a relationship I had built and eventually turn it into one of the best work experiences I have had. Working for the PGA gave me experience that I could not have gotten in a classroom alone. I was able to work on major events, deal with real problems, communicate with different people, and see what it actually takes to operate a large sporting event. The biggest change in my thinking is that I no longer look at professional relationships as something that ends when a job, internship, class, or event ends. I think about what I can do to maintain those relationships after the experience is over. I have learned that people remember how you treat them and how you work with them. Even if you do not talk to someone for months or even a year, that connection can still be valuable. Looking back, it is crazy to me that something as small as sending a text ended up leading to me working for the PGA of America. If I had decided not to reach out, I would have missed out on one of the most important professional experiences of my college career. That experience is something I will carry with me into every job I have in the future. Going forward, I want to continue meeting people, building relationships, and staying connected with the people I work with. I also want to make sure that I am not only reaching out when I need something. I want to build genuine relationships and be someone that people remember as dependable, easy to work with, and willing to help. This experience taught me that you never know where a connection can lead. A conversation, a handshake, or even a simple text can eventually turn into an opportunity that changes your career. For me, that is exactly what happened. I sent a text to someone I had met a year earlier, and that connection eventually led me to the PGA of America. It showed me that maintaining relationships is not just a good networking strategy—it is something that can have a real impact on your career.