You Haven't Hit Your Peak Yet!

14Networking

Dig your well before you’re thirsty

If I had to name the single characteristic shared by all the truly successful people I’ve met over a lifetime, I’d say it is the ability to create and nurture a network of contacts.

Although I never met David Rockefeller, he certainly would have fit in this category. When he passed away in March 2017 at the age of 101, Bloomberg News revealed that he had an “electronic Rolodex” of 150,000 people. The Wall Street Journal recently reported it was 200,000. He was a master networker during his 24 years as the head of Chase Manhattan Bank and 60 years of being involved with the Council on Foreign Relations.

In my corporate speeches, I often ask the question: What is one of the most important words in the English language? I add that if all of us understood this word just a little bit better, we’d be way more successful than we already are. That word is “Rolodex,” which of course is now referred to as a contact management system or a customer relationship management (CRM) system. Call it what you will. It all boils down to how you connect with the people you know.

My father, Jack Mackay, who for 35 years headed the Associated Press in St. Paul, Minnesota, shared his secret with me when I was 18. He said, “Harvey, every single person you meet the rest of your life should go in your Rolodex file. Write a little bit about that person on the bottom or the back of the card. And now, here’s the key—find a creative way to keep in touch.” ...