Your Network Is Your Net Worth: 7 Ways To Build It
Your network is your net worth.
When people think about networking, they imagine themselves walking around a big event, trying their best to be extroverted. They think about shaking hands and exchanging business cards, with the hope that sometime in the not-so-distant future an unbelievable opportunity will fall right into their lap.
That’s not real networking — and that’s why I tend to have such an issue with attending “networking events.”
The best networking I have ever done has been the result of genuine curiosity, and usually in environments most people would never use for networking.
For example: I am very physically active and spend a lot of time at the gym down the street from where I live. Because I spend so much time there, and between the same hours almost every day, I see the same faces over and over again. Instead of always keeping my headphones on, I make an effort to get to know people — I mean we see each other there every day, walk past each other on the way to different machines, etc. Might as well know each other’s names, right?
I can’t tell you how many opportunities have come as the result of the friends I’ve made in the gym.
