Well I had the same thing; I liked to really stick with techies and went to coding events (as far as there were any here). I thought that was nice and it felt like doing it right. Somewhere after selling a company I went travelling and relaxing for an undetermined period of time. Until I really didn&#x27;t like that anymore and I wanted to get back on the horse and start full time coding again (I&#x27;m not the best with self discipline).<p>A friend told me to go to a fintech event and because it was &#x27;tech&#x27; I thought I would meet a lot of very technical people (so same as always). There were only business people instead; most of them had a  (long forgotten) technical background but only few were practicing any tech at that moment. I met a lot of them and exchanged ideas, possibilities and contact info. It was in a friendly way as I didn&#x27;t go there to get work&#x2F;jobs&#x2F;projects; I was there to see what this market was like.<p>I liked it so much I went to a lot of non-tech startup events and general events and talked to more and more people. After only maybe a month or two people started mailing with questions, projects, business proposals etc. One of them I am working on now full time and others I advice, have shares in or work with in some way as the tech adviser.<p>I dreaded the interacting part like you and I dreaded flying; I started doing both of them (as they are usually intertwined; I need to get to people obviously) a lot and now comes naturally and I sit talking to everyone; on the airport, in trains, in bars, wherever instead of staring into my phone or book. So when I got over this whole dreading sensation I expanded to a much larger circle of non work related friends as well as work related contacts &amp; combinations of the above.<p>TL;DR the dynamic that gives me work and freedom is the fact that when knowing a lot of non tech people, acting and&#x2F;or being &#x27;senior&#x27; and being able to drop names of people&#x2F;companies&#x2F;projects they also know (hence the &#x27;a lot&#x27; part) will put you in a position of adviser and tech-trusty. Which gives you opportunity and freedom as you do not need to prove yourself at all anymore.