“If you learned one thing, it was worth it.”

When I was looking for a job after undergrad, I started going on so many ‘coffee chats’, or informational inter views, with family friends, their friends etc. I was so frustrated one day and told my mom none of these people were hiring and that this was a waste of my time. She said if I learned one thing at each coffee, it was worth it—that someone may know someone else, or I may learn a good talking point for interviews down the road. This has given me perspective that nothing’s really a waste of time. At worst, you learned that you don’t like something or someone. At best, you learned something that propelled you forward.