South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive is a special conference for those of us in this whole tech, web, social media thing of a space. For me, it’s special because the networking is great. Everyone is there. Well, not everyone. But, most everyone. It’s impossible for me to walk from my hotel to the convention center without seeing someone I know.

This is pretty much the only place in the world where I have ever found this to be true. I live on the Outer Banks of North Carolina and I go about my life, run errands, whatever… and I don’t know anyone. But, at SXSW, I know plenty of people and that is a lot of fun.

photo credit: See-ming Lee 李思明 SML

One thing I’ve learned over time is to make sure I cut a certain class of people out of my life. My label for them is opportunist, though maybe you can think of a better one. Being an “opportunist” by the definition is not a bad thing – one should always be watching for an opportunity to be successful.

But, what I mean when I say it is that I want to surround myself with people who want to be successful and want to help others be successful. People who just want to take and people who will cut in front of you or take an opportunity away from you are not your friends and are not good business partners. And so, I have no time for those people.

This post is borne out of real life experiences (such as the one below) and a conversation I had with my friend Wayne Sutton while I was at WordCamp Raleigh.