I made my livelihood off networking. Reputation is everything and the more useful you are the more value you bring to everyone you deal with....and anyone you could deal with.
People don't like to look at themselves this way (being "used") but the bottom line in business is:
How useful are you?
If you can be a benefit to other ppl and help them reach their goals, your name will circulate, you'll build your rep, and wherever you go do your best solidify that rep through action.
People will gravitate towards you because they hear ABOUT you more than they hear FROM you.
I've landed contracts just shopping at the store and bumped into somebody I know, who knows that a mutual acquaintance might be looking for something they know I know how to do, and they ask if I'd be interested and they hooked it up. I've bridged other ppl too in a similar manner. It cuts both ways.
Ppl who don't know you are more willing to trust you and your word off the rip if they trust the ppl who hooked u up.....and vice versa. It pays to know ppl.
What I'm about to say may sound fucked up but with exception of close friends I ONLY fuck with ppl I can use toward my bottom line and I know the reason they fuck with me is because they're also using me towards their bottom line. It ain't a "get over" on either party situation. It's a let's get to the money situation. We can be and are friendly but in most cases we aren't friends. We just friendly as a means to an end.
