Networking Takes Risks

The following post was inspired by the book Never Eat Alone written by Keith Ferrazzi with Tahl Raz.

The choice isn’t between success and failure; it’s between choosing risk and striving for greatness, or risking nothing and being certain of mediocrity.

Never Eat Alone

Climbing Without Ropes

Alex Hannold is a free solo climber. This means that he climbs without any ropes, harnesses, or safety gear of any kind. When Hannold climbs, it’s just him and a small bag of chalk hugging the rock face surrounded by thousands of feet of atmosphere. There’s zero margin for error.

Insane. My palms are sweating just thinking about it.

In June of 2017, Alex Hannold took his sport to a whole new level, becoming the first free-soloist to ascend Yosemite’s 3,000 foot El Capitan wall. It was, by far, the most difficult route ever accomplished without ropes.

The accomplishment instantly made Hannold one of the most recognized and sought after climbers in the world. His story is one of perseverance, and pushing the boundaries of human strength and mental toughness.

It’s highly unlikely that anyone ever repeats that type of feat in our lifetime. With his unassisted ascent of El Capitan, Alex Hannold has cemented his place in the annals of climbing lore.

The Nature of Risk

Even for an experienced professional climber like Alex Hannold, climbing El Capitan without safety ropes was an enormous risk. But for Hannold, the risk was worth the reward.

That’s how risk works. By definition, risks may not turn out the way we’d like them to. But it’s what’s on the other side of risk that compels us to do things outside of our comfort zone.

It’s more comfortable to stick with the familiar. To do the things we’ve always done.

But there’s usually no reward in that. We don’t grow from a place of comfort. Growth comes at the expense of taking risks.

Building Your Network One Risk at a Time

The risk we take when we build our network is the possibility of personal rejection. Building new relationships requires putting yourself out there, and that requires some degree of vulnerability and exposing your ego to the chance of embarrassment.

A valuable network is a diverse network. Your ability to create and provide unique value increases dramatically when you’re able to rely on people in your network that bring different ideas and skills to the table.

For example, imagine an illustrator with a passion to make an animated movie. They will have a hard time doing so if the only people in their network are other illustrators. They will need a director, producer, composer, voice actors, script writers, and a host of other people to make their dream a reality. They need a diverse network of help.

Young professionals need diverse networks to maximize the amount of doors available to them. As we seek out new opportunities in pursuit of finding our niche, it helps to know a variety of people across different industries.

We can’t build a diverse network by playing it safe. We need to put ourselves out there. Creating a circle of enriching and trusting relationships requires taking a risk.

Tactical Advice

If the idea of networking makes you uncomfortable (like me), don’t worry – you’re not alone. Most of us don’t find introducing ourselves to new people the least bit instinctive or natural. 

The first step to combat our anxiety of meeting new people is to acknowledge that our fear is perfectly normal. The second is recognizing that getting over our fear and building a diverse network is critical to our success. And finally we need to commit to getting better. 

Here are four things you can do today to help become more bold in social networking situations:

1. Find a role model. Learn behaviors from those already in your social circle who demonstrate a knack for socializing. Mimic their actions and over time you’ll build up the courage to reach out by yourself.
2. Learn to speak by joining an organization like Toastmasters. Become more adept and comfortable speaking in front of new people.
3. Get involved in an organization of people who share your hobbies and interests. Become and active member and work your way into a leadership role. 
4. Just do it. Find opportunities every day to make a new connection. Talk to the next person you sit by on the subway. Sit by someone new at lunch. The more you practice, the less anxiety you’ll have at the thought of rejection.

Growing Outside Our Comfort Zone

We stand to reap the greatest rewards when we’re willing to step outside of our comfort zone and put some skin in the game. We can’t expect to someday have a valuable and diverse network if we’re unwilling to put ourselves out there.

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves that the cost of failure is small, and that the benefit of a valuable new connection in huge. We’ll never achieve what we’re fully capable of by ourselves. We’re going to need help at some point along the way.

Networking is about building those relationships now so that you’ll have them when you need them. And the only way to do that is through unselfish generosity. Put yourself out there, take a risk, and find opportunities where you can provide value in someone else’s life.