Lawyers spend years building networks. But Steve Fretzin learned that having a network and having people who actually show up are two very different things.

Steve joins Neal Goldstein for a conversation about business development, family, survival, loyalty, and the relationships behind professional success.

At 26, Steve survived a plane crash that left him severely injured and his girlfriend with a traumatic brain injury. During his recovery, lifelong friends and family stepped in to care for him. But people Steve had thought of as little more than associates also unexpectedly showed up.

That experience reinforced a lesson that runs throughout Steve's life and career: relationships matter long before you know how much you are going to need them.

Steve shares how growing up with a lawyer father shaped his work ethic and eventual career, and how his mother's serious health problems forced him to take on adult responsibilities at a young age.

Neal and Steve also examine how those lessons translate to the legal profession.

Have lawyers confused networking with relationship building? Are online connections creating genuine relationships or simply creating the appearance of relevance? Why do so many attorneys allow client relationships to disappear as soon as the legal matter ends?

Steve explains why business development should not be treated as something lawyers are simply expected to figure out, and why younger lawyers need to understand both the practice of law and the business of law.

The conversation also returns to Steve's father, the advice he carried with him, and the recordings Steve was fortunate enough to preserve before his father died.

One piece of advice captures much of the episode: "If you can't make a sale, make a friend."

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