Building A Successful Business Through Networking
In today’s age of electronic communication, cell phones, email, blackberries, etc., there are many ways to make communications and networking extremely easy. Yet we all too often forget its value, its true power and lose the advantages it gives us. I have a very good friend who is a very successful business man. He claims that what he does best is know and hire really competent people and let them do their thing, making him look very good, indeed. He has made a career of doing this. Now he happens to be a very creative, extremely bright, accomplished and successful man in his own right yet there is enormous truth to what he is saying.
Throughout our careers, from high school onward, we meet many, many competent, bright, effective people. In fact, we even meet people who are not particularly successful at that point of time in their career but will over time become powerful and successful with experience and opportunity. My friend keeps a huge Rolodex file–enormous–and he works it constantly, with people on it that he met yesterday, last week, ten, twenty, twenty-five and thirty years ago. Everyone who worked for him, everyone he worked for, everyone he has done business with over the years. He stays in touch with most, without expectation of a payback, just through pure acts of reaching out and showing interest. “You can never tell who will be successful,” he says and thus, who will be able to someday advance his own agenda. He hires intelligent, creative people and frees them to do their thing, encouraging experiment and failure as occasionally out of their efforts genius emerges and he is there to help package and deliver it, taking full advantage of the newly developed opportunity. He claims he learns more from his people and together they create success. He further states his practice of doing favors for anyone who asks, performing small tasks of help, introductions, any assistance at all he can offer and provide to anyone he knows as he lives by his standard that what he gives out will come back to him. And how true it is, as he has a huge list of people in every walk of life he can call on and ask for a favor back because he has been so generous with his favors and knows so many people.
So, what’s the message here? I think this strategy is a very smart way to go, remembering all you meet, staying in touch with as many as possible, expanding a huge network of competent creative people who you can tap over the years for service and partnership. Doing favors for as many as you can, without expectations of return, but knowing the communications and networking efforts will make available the right person at the right time, creating opportunity and potential. Many will be there to help you out and by letting them do their thing, success is the product.
It is said, be careful as you climb the ladder of success to not step on the toes of those who help you rise above as when you come back down there may be no one there to help you when you need it. His philosophy expands this dramatically, saying help everyone you meet on your way up and you will never need to ask again for a helping hand, it wll be offered. (Further, the person you help today may be your boss tomorrow!) Perhaps best is his complementary practice of offering creative people an opportunity to work their trade on very favorable terms as he ferrets out optimal success by partnering with successful associates.
Think about it, this is a very powerful and simple but radical business strategy. So few make this a way of life as my friend has and he is very successful and has helped and been helped by many. In the words of the Beatles, “The love you take is equal to the love you make.” Thank you, Fred, for an incredible example of how to live the life we want surrounded by a huge network of competent friends, all willing to help at the drop of a hat. Nice job, a great example!
