By Matt Miner

I don’t remember the linkage, but sometime in 2003 or 2004, my longtime friend and hunting companion Andy and I determined that, not only could we easily link Kevin Bacon to other actors, Andy was himself either 3 or 4 degrees removed from Kevin Bacon, and, by virtue of my relationship to Andy, I was 4 or 5 degrees removed.  If you’re unfamiliar with this game, check out Wikipedia on the subject.

I had an odd run-in with this notion this morning.  Yesterday my friend Greg and I were IMing about a friend of his wife who had left Intel, gone to Fuqua for B-school, returned to Intel, and recently resigned Intel to join another firm.  This morning, at 8:30, my phone rang, and Greg’s friend was on the line.  I was thunderstruck and amused; I’m sure she was even more surprised to learn that I had been talking about her yesterday than I was to receive her call.  I was aware of three facts about her: she knew Greg, she was an Intel alum, and she was a Fuqua alum.  All she knew about me was that I was accepted at Fuqua (more on that in a moment).

Here was someone whose existence I had not been aware of as of Wednesday.  On Thursday I learned she existed, and then she called me Friday morning.  But then it occurred to me – it was not so shocking to hear from her.  She and I were only one relationship removed from one another, and we share three things in common.  It was practically inevitable that she call (Fuqua, not Greg, had connected her to me).

The punch-line is twofold.  First, mind those relationships.  They can connect you to almost anyone very quickly, and relationships are what makes life enjoyable, and society meaningful.  Don’t be crass and quick to criticize business people for deliberately making connections with one another – it is truly how the world works.  Secondly, Kudos to Fuqua for their integration effort – it’s multi-pronged.  I received a call from the AdCom when I was accepted.  Then I got a congratulatory call from my interviewer (a second year student), then I began making connections through Yahoo! Groups ahead of Blue Devil weekend in March, and now a local alum has called, spent a half hour with me, and offered to meet me for coffee or lunch.  Well done Duke!  I’ll see you in March for a visit and July for an extended stay.  And I’ll bring my checkbook.