Business Networking: A laugh at my expense!

You know how even big cities can be made up of lots of local communities? Well, it’s much like that round our way – in our case it’s probably just a triangle of streets.

A friend in the triangle, who lives about a couple of hundred metres along our road asked if I could feed her cat for a couple of days over the festive season as she and a closer neighbour, who usually helped out, were going to be away at the same time.

I got a phone call asking if I could help out a bit longer – her car had been stolen and she needed to stay away a bit longer and put the wheels in motion (sorry about the dreadful pun) to get it sorted out.

When she came to collect her spare house keys the evening of her first day back at work – journey by bus for now as no car – she looked absolutely miserable: Cold, wet, shattered…

“Do you want to come in and have a drink?”

We had a good old chat about all sorts of things and, during the course of the evening, the subject turned to work so I told her I’d nearly finished the book I was writing on business networking. And she said words to the effect: “It’s all about networking.”

We realised then that this was our first ‘1-2-1’ in networking terms – yet we’ve known each other for years – have several mutual friends, been to many of the same parties. I was able to help her out some when she (along with several other locals) was flooded out a few years ago, she’s lent me stuff – all the usual things.

I thought I knew vaguely what she did, yet it turned out I didn’t really have the foggiest idea.

She left a couple of hours later with a smile on her face and we’d set a date for me to interview her on networking and its impact on her success in life, to be included as a free bonus in the book’s package.

So here’s the irony

One of the early things the book says is:

"Network the easy way, with people you know"

Right, that’ll be a good idea for me to “practise what you preach” then!