For all our ambition to make it our own, we must realize that other people present us with a vast opportunity to enhance whatever we do. We might as well exist among them as happily and successfully as possible by building a network.
Networking does not mean being grasping, calculating, or coldly ambitious. It means consciously founding long-term relationship in your business and personal life, and maintaining them with the discipline and pleasure they merit. The kinds of things people do foe reach for each other range from arranging the deal that gets a friends new business off the ground, to getting a big-name band for daughters wedding. There is no telling what a friend will do for you.
You begin by letting people know you are alive. How many times have you gone to a business conference, talked to some guy you admired, and just let it go at that? Why not keep on touch?
Or suppose you are reading a magazine six month later and see that some prediction he has made been fulfilled. Do you send him a clip?
Do you go to reunions? Do you send birthday cards? Do you talk to people in your office about things other than business? If you show interest in people, you will often find they are interesting. Being shy is no excuse not to get in touch with people. Go to some conference where you can talk with others about some areas of your knowledge. Talk about other things, too: children, hobbies, school, politics, religion. Really . at the very least, you will broaden the range of your experience.
Start a file of your friends and acquaintances, what they are doing, and where they are. Keep it updated. You should be continually asking yourself: who might like to hear from me, and whom can I help? Serendipity works in your favour, if you keep in touch.
Because contacts and friendship evolve and select themselves over time, networking is a form of movement. You are talking a forward look at things and asking : “where do I want to be?” when I came to Manhattan from the Bronx to work in the mailroom of an advertising agency, I could have spent my spare time knocking back beers at Tony’s Corner Bar. Instead, I went to Toots Shor’s or The “21” Club. The drinks cost only a quarter more, and I got the thrill of seeing my favourite sports heroes, newspaper columnist, and business leaders. In time, I found the nerve to talk to theme. I was a good listener, and I kept myself well-in-formed on sports, business and politics. I tried always to have story to tell.
I had risen to vice president when I quit to staff my own shop. I pulled together a good staff and landed some account, and soon we were ready to place our first print ads. We ran square into a brick wall: all major magazines, we discovered, belonged to the publishers’ Advertising Bureau (PAB). PAB members required any agency buying space in their pages to prove they had a large cash reserve before the ad was accepted. We were caught behind the eight ball. How could we make our first money by placing an ad, if to place the ad, we already had to have the money? For years, this rule kept new agencies from entering the field.
David J. Mahoney Advertising Inc. was broke and out of luck. Almost. At the “21” Club, I’d become friendly with Howard Blac, who was an ad director at Time Inc., to whom I poured out my story one night. Now, from a pure business point if view, Howard has no reason to help me; in fact, his position required him to get along with the established agencies and with other members of the PAB. But he liked me, and was incensed that my new business was being strangled.
The next day, he called the sales staff of Time, life, and Fortune, and told them to accept ad placements from my agencies. All a had do was have my clients pay for their ads in advance; because clients liked our work, they were glad to do this. My hide was saved, and my agency placed its ads and prospered. Someone who helps you in a crucial way may not be big-time executive; maybe a friend sparks an idea a with a chance comment, or bucks you up when you need it. Be optimistic about people and draw them out. You will multiply your resources in way.
