More Money Is Just The Beginning...

Adam Steen and I are working on a book together and I personally think it's going to be rock solid.  We're talking about the necessity of building a strong network and doing it the RIGHT way.  

In The Power of Networking: Understanding Influence For Leaders At All Levels, by Robyn Henderson, she talks about the influence and power super networkers possess and why:

Master networkers understand that their ongoing success depends on treating their networks and the people within them with respect and integrity. This is one of the reasons why building networks takes time, effort and, most of all, sincerity. 

Sincerity, Integrity, Respect -- how about selflessness?  What I find most amazing is the inability for most people to network (i.e. to connect a couple of great people) without expecting an eye for an eye.  Honestly, BNI groups make me want to pull out the remaining hair I have.  I never attended any organized networking club more than once because it seemed like as soon as someone passed me a "lead" I had to return the favor.

Why don't I just open up my rolodex and let everyone have a shot at it?  

Our form of networking is based on completely reversed principles.  When I go out to meet people, it's about who I can connect them to to help them achieve some life aspiration or business objective.  AND... it's a very big AND... it has to be in BOTH of the parties best interest or I'm not readily willing to make the connection.  

You could say I subscribe to Steve Farber's Greater Than Yourself Philosophy.  (Steve, I'm not sure if it's a philosophy, a creed, a model, or a paradigm -- but I am sure I like it.)  It's the notion that as leaders and super connectors, our responsibility to the relationships we build is to help them become greater than ourselves. It's extreme leadership in its' purest form -- selfless, caring, encouraging, supportive.

Which is not to say that as an extreme leader or super connector we're not supposed to profit from it.  It just may not be the primary and immediate motivator.  I believe that when we promote opportunities while establishing relationships (POWER) we build tremendous amounts of social equity that will always come back to benefit us.  In fact, when enough POWER is built with enough people, the acronym then becomes:

Profiting

On

What

Everyone

Refers 

It's the strangest thing... I spent the first year or so of my business connecting the people that needed to be connected and while it's arguable I'm not the best mortgage guy or professional speaker in town, what's certifiable is the sheer number of referrals I receive from those I've assisted selflessly.

So, I thought it interesting, and insightful, and a pretty great read when Keith Ferrazzi came out with Who's Got Your Back?  I loved Never Eat Alone and use it in combination with Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends And Influence People when "working" my network.  That is... making mad connections.

The only tweak I would've added to Ferrazzi's book is the follow up to Who's Got Your Back should be --

And How Many?