Success is healthier when you still recognize people who cannot advance it.

It is easy to start sorting people by what they can do for you, usually without ever deciding to. Attention drifts toward whoever might be useful, and the person who cannot help your position becomes background. The drift is quiet, and by the time you notice it you have become someone who is only really present for people with something to offer.

Think about who you have stopped making time for and whether their usefulness is the reason. Get back in touch with one of them this week, with no purpose attached. The capacity to be genuinely interested in someone who can do nothing for you is worth protecting on its own terms.