Help me build a network
Can you connect me to the 5 smartest people you know?
I tried building a network by attending networking events. Very soon realized that it was a waste of time.
Restricting the people in my professional network
I’m very picky about whose advice I take. I realize there are a lot of people trying to seem smart by knowing-it-all. It’s hard to spot their fakeness.
The only filter that works is knowing them and talking to them over years.
I have only 5 such people in my network with whom I share and talk about all things professional. It is only their feedback I genuinely hear.
Nurturing relationships
For people whom I trust, I go out of the way to help them out. I don’t try to look for any business incentive. My incentive is keeping the relationship alive and strong.
What if they ask for help that is too big for you to oblige?
I outright refuse. But this rarely or never happens. All people in my network are very well aware of what I’m doing and where I’m placed to help them out. The filtering of whether I’d be able to help happens even before I’m reached out to.
Picking people
I look up to people smarter than me. By 10x. People who make my jaws drop. There are a lot of such people. They’re just scattered.
I look to have one strong relationship in each domain I deal with. My rough counting tells me there are about a dozen fields I operate in. From design to tech to legal to growth. But I have only 5 people in my network. What about the other 7?
I am still looking for such people whom I can fallback upon when I’m stuck without fear of getting judged for the other domains.
Spotting smart people
The single biggest determinant in figuring out if a person is smart is if they ask hard questions. Questions to which I don’t have answers, or have had difficulty in answering in the past.
If someone asks a dumb question, I try to see what context the other person is missing that demands a question that looks dumb. I give little margin for error. If they’re smart, I indulge in a conversation.
Evolutionary advantage
Science has it that humans are good instinctively at judging people. Hunter gatherers needed to quickly judge whether to allow a person from a different tribe in. They had to do it quick. We’ve been doing this for millennia. We’re good at it. I let my instincts talk when picking people.
How do you connect with smart people?
Can you connect me to the 5 smartest people you know? DM me!
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