You Can't Do It Alone

“Today, we network for pretty much everything we need and desire. You might be a genius in some areas of your life, but you’re going to need others to assist you where you’re not strong. That’s where networking comes into play,” says Bob Beaudine, author of The Power of WHO. “Each of us comes to a chasm in our business sooner or later that we can’t cross without someone’s help. Going it alone is like trying to speed walk on the moon. It’s hard to get traction. Conversely, tapping into your network is like walking on one of those people-movers at the airport. You just step on, and all of a sudden there’s a power underneath transporting you to your destination faster than you could get there by yourself. People are bridges you must cross to get where you want to go. They serve as catalysts. The value for business owners is that networking the right way can provide the power to help them achieve their goals a whole lot quicker than they could ever do it on their own.”Managing Relationships
“The Dunbar 150 theory, which holds that humans can realistically only have meaningful relationships with up to 150 people, still prevails. The average number of friends that Facebook users have is 130,” says Smith. “However, for those of us who are natural connectors, as described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book The Tipping Point, our ability to build meaningful relationships with hundreds, even thousands of people, is a breeze. Others can learn this skill, too. With reliable social customer relationship management tools, you can easily keep detailed notes on a vast number of connections. And tools like Gist.com and Rapportive. com display the social profiles of everyone in your social network and email inbox, making continuous networking easier and much more effective.”