This week, I met with someone who recently finished their MBA and is trying to decide what city to move to. Their job has given them the flexibility to choose to live in any of several major cities. This person is in their early 30s and looking for not just professional but also personal success. They want to live in a city that will help them in both areas. Succeeding professionally but not having a social life or finding a life partner wouldn’t cut it.

The more I’ve learned from my own mistakes and from reading biographies, the more clear it’s become that your personal network heavily influences the opportunities you’re presented with and your probabilities of succeeding (whatever that means to you). This is true of your personal life, too—the people you socialize with have a big influence on its direction.

I suggested that they go through all the personal and professional relationships they’ve built over the last several years, identify the important ones, and plot the cities those people live in. Then they can count the number of strong personal and professional relationships in each city they’re considering moving to.

My advice was to strongly consider the city that scores highest in strong relationships in both spheres. It’s impossible to predict what any city has in store for you, but living and working where you have the most high-quality personal and professional relationships drastically increases the chances of your finding success in both arenas.