As baseball season begins (the crack of taut horse-hide on polished ash), I sometimes think of the observation by ex-jock announcers of current rookies: “His future is all ahead of him.”

Communications is about hope, the future, helping our organizations meet their goals. When Jim and I conduct strategic communication planning sessions, we often engage participants in a “SWOT” analysis of the communication department’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Except we make it a “SWTO” analysis, to end on the note of optimism, the future, “opportunity”.

I once read in an essay by Woody Allen, referencing another, more intimate, context, that nothing is sadder than a missed opportunity.

An anecdote to illustrate the point:

Last Oct. 30, Jim and I were in Dallas, and, because it was his birthday, we went out after work for one perfect martini, before dinner with the client/friend. The waitress, a bright, literate, engaging young woman, talked us into a martini with blue cheese-stuffed olives on a stick.

They were so great we asked her, with her intelligence, presence, communications skills, etc: “Why are you waitressing?” She told us she had just graduated from SMU (Southern Methodist University) with a degree in corporate communications and was looking to find a job.

We told her that, coincidentally, we work for Ragan Communications, the oldest and largest company in the profession, with information sites, conferences, training, consulting, even a job site specifically designed for recent grads like her. We told her that our social site, myragan.com, had a networking group for recent grads.

Could we give her our e-mails and review her resume, or the addresses of our sites?

She smiled, as if we two older men were trying to make small talk, seemed completely distracted, pre-occupied and busy.

Few people get a job because a career counselor gives them a resume template or their parents tell them they’re special. It’s usually a connection; sometimes, a chance connection. Much of life happens by chance encounters.

So Jim and I went off to his birthday dinner with our client – our favorite client.

It was great. We’re too old to miss an opportunity.

See you behind the Hertz counter at DFW, sweetie.