"Say yes to unfamiliar roles; networks compound unexpectedly Tyson traces how a single reluctant yes — agreeing to join the Planetary Society board — cascaded into hosting Cosmos, which led Fox to acquire National Geographic, which put StarTalk on television and earned four Emmy nominations. He describes holding a Star Talk beer mug that "could have only come about because I became host of Cosmos, because I was on the board of the Planetary Society." The practical lesson is to accept invitations to serve, advise, or participate in communities adjacent to your expertise, even when the immediate payoff is unclear, because the compounding of those relationships over years produces outcomes no direct pursuit could have engineered. Source: Neil deGrasse Tyson, StarTalk, Cosmic Queries Episode"