Articles such as this recent one on Entrepreneur.com offering “3 Tips” to improve your networking typically drive me nuts. How nuts? Nuts enough to write a blog post on a Saturday morning before I’ve had caffeine nuts.
Why?
If every networking anxiety could be eliminated or networking nightmares erased by a few simple steps — WELL — we’d all do it right? PROBLEM SOLVED! Easier than assembling a piece of IKEA furniture! As universal as good oral hygiene: no endless articles on that ’cause we know to brush our teeth 2x a day and floss regularly. IF networking was as easy as a few simple rules, we’d know what we have to do (and make the personal choice to ignore the solid, universal advice) AND most importantly, we wouldn’t have to see another article promising simple solutions to what is actually a complex, personal and human endeavor.
HOWEVER!
If you want 3 tips to improve your networking, here are mine:
- Tip One: Don’t be a jerk.
- Tip Two: Don’t call on your network only when you need something (cause that is being a double jerk).
- Tip Three: Read tips 1 and 2 again.
