NETWORKING

In one of his several mentorship and life advice, this winter break my uncle gave me a book titled “The 2020 Workplace: How Innovative Companies Attract, Develop, and Keep Tomorrow's Employees Today” by Jeanne C. Meister and Karie Willyerd, to read. I will recommend if you like this blog post take some time and read it. This book reawakens my thoughts and gives foundation to some of my beliefs about the relationships I build with the people I meet every day. Let’s explore that.

Networking……now depending on how you define it or use it, in this blog post we are talking about the relationship we build with people we don’t know, those we are going to meet and how we maintain those we already have. With the dawn of the computer age and the technology future I believe the value and importance of networking has become more important than most prospects. I want to think a lot of us are taking it for granted because we do not have to work for it as hard as we would have if not for these social network sites. I mean it is easy to find an old roommate or classmate on Facebook or delete and add friends anytime we want. Let’s take some time and look into the value and importance of networking.

For the non-believers allow me to use this logic; if you do not believe in befriending new people and getting to know strangers then we must respect that. Well consider that there is 6 billion and one person on earth, YOU are unique because you have a special quality that nobody on earth has, and YOU are special and have a purpose! Now with all your special qualities there are 6 billion other people who share similar traits give or take! Wouldn’t you want to get to know these wonderful people just like you? Don’t you think as much as you are too big or careless about these people they might have something you don’t have? Well the answer is YES, 6 billion people have something you don’t have and whether you don’t care you are already pursuing these qualities by living in the same planet as them, your alternative is DYING! Living on earth means you have to coexist, situationally we are born into families but when you think of networking consider the whole world your family! We sure do want different things in life but it’s homologous to assume whatever our pursuit is, building a relationship with a stranger is part of it. There is something you need and you do not have! The way you go about acquiring it then that might be debatable.

Networking has existed since the beginning of time; I think it has been the fundamental in building every great empire, nation and family. We are only emphasizing it now because with the technology age it’s importance and value has never been this high. Gosh! Smart young men have made a 50 billion dollars profit overnight using the concept and there’s still more to be done and improve on. Traditionally people have bonded with their ethnics groups and family, matter of fact these kinds of bondage has led to grave ills in our past history like the well-known RACIAL DISCRIMINATION and wars!! I want to encourage such bonds but promote networking; that is the inter-bonding between cultures or ethnic groups. In every blog post I have made declarations about things based on my thoughts and on this post I will do the same.

If you stay within your ethnicity or culture or family, you will NOT progress in this new era and things will only get worse for you and your community. In this era I don’t have to be a member of the African association, Latino group to know what they are about, what their projects are, what they share among them…..etc. NO! I don’t have to be one of them I can just “Google it” and their whole agenda is on my computer screen. See in the past communities who dominated succeeded because inter-communications with other groups where non-existent, it was treason to tell somebody the agenda of your nation, today it is all too common (Wikileaks!!), it was impossible to know what a country or group was up to today I can even see the visual on YouTube. So if you have an idea or a project and you think you will conquer and dominate by staying within a particular group you are mistaken! In this age the best way to accomplish this idea, project is to identify and cooperate with the best minds, search the best solutions and use the best people you can find. It is okay to stay within your community or group but at some point you must diversify your portfolio you must NETWORK! Yes you can network vertically (within your community) or horizontally (diversifying with other groups) but if you want to achieve measurable success you must network, by accepting and considering broadening your scope.

Let me explain; see in the past we have stayed within our OWN people and lacked behind some might argue different but in terms of measure those who have considerably succeed are those groups, nations, communities who have crossed cultural and ethnic bounds. I think China has always had the potential to be a great power they just did not know how to embrace other cultures or open up to different demographics, CHINA’s rise to power regardless of how you look at it is because they are now doing  NETWORKING!!! China has learned to expand beyond their communist ideology and now the world can witness them unveil their true power and they are not still doing enough and in my opinion will never truly be a world power!

In every new friend I have made in the last year I have seen them as gold mine regardless of who they are or what they do! You know it is amazing seeing people in this light, I have been networking and the treasures have been pouring in, I wish I could tell you my personal testimony on this blog post but I would not want to offend some people who helped me achieved it. When you see value in yourself then you are accepting the first principle of networking. If you see value in yourself then think of the billions of people out there that may have similar values or even better. Engage, engage, engage with other people there is no loss in investing in relationships, like most optimist even if some people let you down the experience will propagate you to move forward wisely! I might have over 1000 friends on Facebook, in a year I communicate with over 20% of these friends and in two or three years over 70%! With my networking believe I think someday our Facebook friendship might yield mutual benefits of any form. I am not obligated to these people but I value every one of them because believe it or not we are all USERS in this world, you might not know it but as much as you might have felt used, you are reciprocating it daily on somebody else. In my part I see value even in the least among us (which by the way is ME!) that’s just my opinion. Look even the people you despised may have some of the most valuable traits that if you can unravel will be your everlasting jewel. There is no success story or a successful man without a partner whether wife or friend.

The book I mentioned above reveals the treasures of networking although specifically to the workplace. You see employers have already grasped this concept of networking. By 2020 applying for a job will come with your qualifications and something called your “network portfolio”. Your membership in Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Hi5, LinkedIn, Ubuntu etc. plus if you have a blog, website, discussion group..... these things will be evaluated when you apply for a job and will be top priority! Among other things the theme of the book might be describing the nature of the workplace in 2020 but it basically display the importance of networking! Attend networking meetings, travel and above all be sociable!!

Six years ago I always use to hear people say the world will become one small global village. I believe that time is already here. People who still only mingle with their own kind might not get it but it’s just a matter of time before all what we knew about our difference becomes reduce to ashes with the dawn of the new era of technology and no country will be a great power but every nation will be good enough because it will be a mutual power share, where we all depend on each other for something! If you don’t believe this then consider this, not paying attention to networking now, will greatly affect you in less than five years remember you read it on this BLOG!!

I feel like there’s much to say but I will let your comments bring out the rest. Please feel free to comment about this post and as always I will be more than grateful to hear your own thoughts!