I ran into a friend of mine yesterday. He’s a former co-worker who I’ve continued to work with on and off for the past for the past 10 years. We usually meet for lunch at least once a year to see how things are going. This wasn’t a planned meeting, we just happened to be at the same restaurant at the same time. This guy is very good at what he does and has been rewarded for this very well over the years. He was excited. He told me that he’s working on a project, a very lucrative project. In the middle of lots of news about job losses, economic slowdown, looming bankruptcies, lack of consumer confidence, frozen credit markets, etc. he’s continued to do well. He’s making a lot of money and really enjoying himself. How did it happen? Networking. Specifically, he was on http://www.linkedin.com/ and saw that one of his connections posted a note that they were coming to town. He decided to see if they wanted to grab dinner while they were here. It turns out that they did, and it turned out that they needed his help with something very minor on a project that they were working on. Just 2 days worth of assistance. Well, he did that work, made a good impression, and it turned into very high paying multi month opportunity that looks like it might lead into something even bigger than this. Lucky guy? Maybe – but he helped to create his luck by taking the initiative to invite someone to dinner. It was a $100 investment that turned into something worth much more. Did my friend really want to go to dinner with the person he invited? Would he have rather hung out with his neighbor, or college buddies, or family? Maybe he would have, but he made a strategic decision that the person who was coming into town was someone who he should re-connect with professionally and spend some face time with, so he did. Was this dinner arranged as an interview? No, not formally. Neither of them probably knew what the other was up to. However, you’re always interviewing. If my friend had showed and not made a good impression, what are the chances that he would have been given the opportunity to do the small project? Not very good. If he had been short sighted and turned down the small project because it was not “worth his time” he’d have never been offered the additional work where he’s raking it in today. What’s the point? Go out of your way to network, always. Not just when you need something, but whenever you can. Don’t just network with people who are your best friends, or who make you laugh, or who know you better than anyone else, but network professionally. Networking is beyond twitter, facebook, e-mail, & linkedin. Those are great ways to keep your network going, but they are not a replacement for face to face meetings. Pick one person today who you know you should meet with and schedule a time to get together – face to face. You don’t have to buy them a $100 dinner. You don’t have to buy them anything. Meet for coffee and just spend a few minutes listening to what is going on in their lives and you might be very surprised at what kind of possibilities open up, even if you’re not looking for any right now!
