Recently at misecCON I had the pleasure of meeting Dug Song at the speakers dinner. He was the opening key note and I was the after lunch presenter on API security. When he walked in I had no idea who he was outside of being the keynote speaker. As I was scooting down to make room for him I got the sense that the guy sitting next to me was disappointed. I asked him as much and he confirmed that he would love to be sitting next to Dug and that he might fanboy a bit over me.

Something you should know about me is that I’m a bit oblivious at times. I try to treat everyone the same whether they’re a new person in the field or a rock star. And by rock start I mean a literal rock star. I’ve sat at dinner across from Neil Fallon from Clutch and had a genuinely pleasant conversation. Dug and Neil are people too and they wouldn’t be sitting with me for dinner if they weren’t down to earth.

I’m writing about this because I’ve recently started reading “The Daily Laws” by Robert Greene and I think today’s entry fits perfectly, “Assume You’re Misjudging the People Around You.” It’s a great reminder not to jump to conclusions about people. Throughout my career I’ve had people I thought were mentors suddenly stop communicating with me. I’ve also meet people that didn’t leave a great impression on me come around later in my career and make a great impression. You just never know in your career which is why it’s important to remain humble and not make assumptions about the people you meet.

What I loved about my interaction with Doug was he seemed to foster this mindset. He was very gracious and patient when I asked questions about whether he knew about MiSec (he’s the founder of the Song Foundation) and if he had ever been in startup (Duo). He also tried to steer the conversation away from him asked questions of the others sitting around him at the table. We had some great conversations about a lot of different things inside and outside of security.

Networking is huge for anyone in a career. Go out and meet people but avoid making assumptions about people. Give everyone an opportunity because you might end up finding a really great person to connect with.

This blog post first appear on Exploring Information Security.