How to Be a Power Connector: The 5+50+100 Rule for Turning Your Business Network into Profits

Foreword

Harvard Business School (where I received my MBA) is all about networking and connecting people—but I never enjoyed that part of my time there. I’m not the most outgoing person in the world, nor am I the “life of the party”; the thought of going to a cocktail party or networking event with people I didn’t know was painful. But the other reason I used to find networking so difficult was that my concept was flawed. Most people approach networking with a very specific purpose in mind: to reach someone they need to know. But that’s a superficial view. Building a network isn’t simply exchanging business cards and eventually picking up the phone and calling people when you need them. Today I think of networking as getting to know people that ...