Advantages of having a strong network

I've read a post on LinkedIn about the positives of having a strong professional network an want to share my experience.

I was working on a project that has a great vision and a great visionary as the product owner. The project works in a so called "agile" way without any priorities, a lot of vendors and a lot of meetings and no outcomes.

Once I discussed about this project to my friend and the tensions and stress I'm getting from the project. Surprisingly, the  next week I got a lunch invite from my friend's friend and I met with a couple of his colleagues. After a week, the HR from the company called me about an opportunity.

Since I was not actively looking outside, I told I'll consider when I look outside. World is small, polish your skills, read a lot (my favorite is InfoQ  and some blogs I personally follow)