The following post was inspired by the book Never Eat Alone written by Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz.
Once you’ve taken the time to figure out what your mission is and where you want to get to, the next step is to identify the people who can help you get there.
Never Eat Alone
The Highest Summit
Extreme sub-zero temperatures. Unpredictable blizzards. Oxygen depletion. Frostbite and fatigue.
These are just a handful of the challenges Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay faced on that historic Friday on May 29, 1953 as they became the first men to ascend the highest point on earth. It was a milestone achievement in human history, and it marked the end of a race to the top of Mount Everest that began three decades earlier.
Hillary and Norgay are remembered as individuals for their breakthrough achievement, but their success would never have been possible alone. The British Mount Everest expedition of 1953, led by Colonol John Hunt, was made up of 362 porters, 20 Sherpas and over 10,000 pounds of gear. It took the equivalent of a small village 47 days to make the slow 10,800 foot journey from base camp to the summit.
We All Need Help Reaching The Top
We tend to idolize individual achievement because it makes for a better story. But the truth of the matter is that great success is always a joint effort.
We all need help. Whether it be trainers, coaches, mentors, parents, teachers, friends, coworkers, or even rivals. They all play a role in helping us achieve our goals. The sooner we acknowledge this simple and irrefutable fact of life, the faster we can be on our way towards achieving our dreams and ambitions.
Becoming Well Connected
Networking takes time and effort. They’re not built overnight and they don’t happen on their own. The most well connected people realize this and are intentional about taking names and organizing their contacts.
Investing time and effort into maintaining your relationships is worth it. It’s no coincidence that the people at the top of their field are often the most connected. Their success is often a result of the people they know, not the other way around.
The people who are on Crain’s “40 Under 40” aren’t necessarily the forty best businesspeople. They are, however, probably the forty most connected.
Never Eat Alone
To get started down the path of intentionally building our network, we need to think about establishing a system for organizing information on the people we know, and the people we hope to know someday. And it doesn’t need to be complex. In fact, the best way is to start with a list.
Tactical Advice
Keith Ferrazzi shares the following tactical advice for creating lists of people you want to add to your network.
- List everybody already in your current network. You’ll be surprised at how big it already is.
- Create categories of people who you want to meet. For example, you might make a list of potential clients, or investors, or mentors, or influential early adopters and journalists.
- Get to know all the players in your field, and set out a goal to be recognized as one of those players some day.
- Keep an aspirational list. People who are not connected to your business in any way, but you would love to get to know someday.
- Always be specific. List the name the actual person you want to meet, not just the name of the organization.
Conclusion
If you’re like me, this may be the first time you’ve thought of intentionally managing your list of contacts. But reading this book has changed my perspective and attitude towards how I maintain and organize my list of current and prospective relationships.
I think the insight here for young professionals is learning to appreciate and recognize your network for the career asset it is. We can either sit back and meet people by chance, or we can be intentional about forging new connections.
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