We’re focusing on networking for the next couple of weeks, so let’s start with a little contradiction: Yes, networking is important, but never for its own sake. The real point is in forming real connections that are beneficial to all involved. (Remember that? It’s something called friendship!)
Give more than you receive. Listen more than you talk. Be of service to your community. Keep your eyes open and ears to the ground. Do these things, and you’ll never want for opportunity (or clichés, apparently). Bluesy rocker Steve Winwood is more eloquent:
“Networking is rubbish. Have friends instead”
— Steve Winwod
Networking for People Who Hate Networking: A Field Guide for Introverts, the Overwhelmed, and the Underconnected
by Devora Zack
From the publisher’s description: “Zack politely examines and then smashes to tiny fragments the “dusty old rules” of standard networking advice. She shows how the very traits that ordinarily make people networking-averse can be harnessed to forge an approach that is just as effective as more traditional approaches, if not better. And she applies it to all kinds of situations, not just formal networking events. After all, as she says, life is just one big networking opportunity—a notion readers can now embrace.”
