So much of life is taking the risk to put ourselves out there–to say to the world, “I have something to offer and I want to share it with you.” Whether it’s a dinner party, a holiday party, a virtual book launch party, an art opening, or even just you offering your services to a group of people that you believe could benefit from them, there’s always the possibility that you could throw a party and no one will show up.

In fact, this very thing happened to me yesterday! I am one of the event organizers for the Minority Singles and Professionals of Austin meetup, and I organized a happy hour. I got extra cute, headed over to Gibson Bar, and staked out a sunny table in the corner of the outdoor patio for our group, excited to welcome the four people who had RSVPed. I sat there by myself sipping some kind of alcoholic sweet tea for an hour before I finally gave in and decided that no one was coming.

I had thrown a party and no one had shown up–or so I thought.

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