Business has always relied on effective interaction between people to generate opportunities. People acquire a vast amount of their success, breakthroughs, knowledge and resources through other people. Unfortunately, even professionals whose careers and business results are completely dependent on meeting people, managing contacts and building relationships do not seem to appreciate the importance of these critical skills.
You have probably heard stories of men and women, young and old that met complete strangers in the aircraft, buses, churches, mosques, neighborhoods, conferences, parties etc. who opened up to these strangers, introduced themselves, started a conversation; subsequently developed a relationship, managed the contacts and had their lives, businesses, careers, income, etc. turned around for good. It can be that simple. But the key word here is MET! They met the strangers. There was a contact. There was a connection.
Sometimes, these are meetings between lowly placed people and highly influential people. At other times, it can be a meeting between someone who needed information and another person that had information, between someone who needed help and one who had help, between one who needed direction and one who knew the way. There was a contact. There was a meeting. A contact, a meeting with the potentials to change lives.
Talent alone will not save you in today's economy. Oh talent is good and important, but there are many talented musicians wasting in the streets today; there are many footballers talented and good enough to play in the biggest clubs in the world, who are wasting in bad pitches across the country; there are many talented painters, fashion designers, etc. who are living in penury. These people have no challenge with talent. They have a big issue with contacts. They have a big issue with the quality of their contacts.
There are so many talented footballers that are wasting in the rural areas. Austin ''Jay-Jay'' Okocha, the former captain of the Nigerian senior team, was a talented midfielder! But, even in his best days, he was not the most talented midfielder in Nigeria. There were many other talented midfielders playing in local fields in the villages. Nobody discovered them. They had the talent but it was not sufficient to bring them out of obscurity. Oh yes, talent will make room for a man, but you need more than talent to survive.
The traditional advice to get more training and education is fantastic, but insufficient on its own to launch you. Your education and qualifications will not necessarily guarantee you a good job. Of course, I encourage you to get a good education and obtain good qualifications. But I am sure that there were classmates of yours who were head and shoulders more intelligent than you, who made better grades, who have MBA from the best universities in the world but who are earning peanuts. The problem is not with their education, qualification or competence. The problem is with the quality of their contacts.
Your product, price, promotion and place will not on their own guarantee you good sales. You know why? For every product of your company, other companies have similar products - only with a different name. Other companies can give as much discount as you; can make as much noise by way of jingles and adverts as you do; can open as many branches as your company. If you are a sales person, your figures will be a reflection of the number and quality of the contacts that you have.
The government will not save you. No matter how good a government is with policies and programs, you will still find poor people. And no matter how bad a government is, you will still find people who are doing very well. Sure, it's critical that government provides the enabling environment for us to prosper. However, you need more than your talent, you need more than your education, you need more than your product and you need more than the government to save you.
You need quality contacts. You need a good network.
I strongly believe that we should all be passionate about building business and social networks - vertical and horizontal. Of course, the more powerful your network, the more primed you are to maximizing your potentials and achieving your aspirations in life. I strongly believe that the quality of your life cannot be greater than the quality of your contacts and network. If you had better contacts, your life would have been better than it is today. Your business would have been flourishing better. The value of the business you are managing today is a reflection of the quality of your contacts. Put another way, the more and better people you meet and connect with, the higher the quality of your life.
Critical Question: Who Do You Need To Meet?
1. Who do you need to meet to fulfill your purpose, realize your vision and achieve your goals in life?
2. Who do you need to meet to get a good job?
3. Who do you need to meet to get that contract?
4. Who do you need to meet to obtain a scholarship?
5. Who do you need to meet to get grants and donations?
6. Who do you need to meet to get a government appointment?
7. Who do you need to meet to get spiritual counsel for the burden on your soul?
8. Who do you need to meet to get medical help for your health challenges?
9. Who do you need to meet to get admission for yourself or your ward?
10. Who do you need to meet to attract amenities to your community?
11. Who do you need to meet to showcase your talent?
12. Who do you need to meet to win that election?
WHO DO YOU NEED TO MEET? Networking is about answering that question. Who do I need to meet to move my life, my life business and my life career a notch higher? Who do I need to meet to unleash and maximize my potentials? Who do I need to meet to solve the problems that I cannot solve on my own? To deal with the issues I can't handle alone?
I sometimes see and think of wasted lives everywhere. I see people who have wasted or are wasting their lives, not because they don't possess the potential or talents, not because they are not determined and hardworking; but because there is no connection between their talents or potential and the people who can help them. So talent, dreams and huge potential are wasted because of the lack of the 'meet factor". They have not met the right people.
Business and social networking is the bridge between your latent talent or potential and the crystallization of the potential.
You can dramatically improve the quality of your life, business and career by improving the quality of your contacts, connections and network.
Please visit my website: http://www.ferdinandibezim.com to find out how.
You can also order a copy of my bestselling book: The XYZ of Business and Social Networking from Amazon.com
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