Gary Vaynerchuk once shared a powerful insight (fair enough Gary, you’ve shared a crap ton of powerful insights). He said so eloquently “Get out there and network. People are the people, people are the people? People are the people that are going to help you…” – Gary Vaynerchuk, Keynote at Web 2.0 Expo NY.
And that’s exactly why Steve matters…
Not following?
Think about it. How did you conquer your last big challenge? Who helped you? Who introduced you? Was it someone you’ve known for years or someone you’ve met a handful of times?
More than likely it’s the latter. When it comes to the power of your network it’s all about the weak ties. In fact the fastest way to take your business from doing O.K. to dominating your market is to build the crap out of your weak ties.
To add more power to this punch, understand that it’s actually impossible to have lots and lots of strong ties. Malcolm Gladwell talks about this in the Tipping Point, it’s called Dunbar’s number and it maxes out at 150 relationships. And even at 150 I find it brutally difficult to be on top of my game.
What Next?
Start following-up with every single person you come in contact with PERIOD.
Even that dude Steve who you met at your last conference, who had bad breath and talked to you about nuclear waste disposal and puppy treats for 1 hour too long — he’s spent the last decade empowering integrated e-commerce and you’re in the process of synergizing dynamic ecommerce communities!!!
Remember “Get out there and network. People are the people, people are the people? People are the people that are going to help you…”
