If I had an appointment, I couldn't call to cancel, I would have had to show up.
If I had to add a detail to an instruction, or get more detail from someone, about something that was important, I couldn't have.
If I had an emergency, nobody would know who to contact (just in case, put ICE in your phone) if I were unconscious.
These three things were somewhat life altering. Though I now have my phone back, i'm not taking my lessons for granted. Living a day without all of my 431 contacts (perhaps only 1/4 of whom I talk with each month) also taught me that I really should memorize all the phone numbers of people I talk to regularly, like my mom still does. I'll call her and ask for an aunt or uncle's phone number and she starts speaking it, I don't have to wait for her to look it up in her phone and she definitely doesn't wait for me to get something to write it on.
What does all this have to do with networking? Well, I was just reading a blog entry by Ivan Misner, founder of BNI the world's largest netowrking institute, talking about how today you can miss and cancel appointments somewhat lackadasically (i'm amazed that word didn't pop up for spell check).
Though his post only laments the degradation of stick-to-your word, my experience of losing my phone revealed that I should spend more time accually communicating with people instead of talking to people about when we can talk, or shuffling plans when I make up something else to do.
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