“It’s difficult to connect with people while pursuing your selfish agenda. By nature, connecting is a giving experience.” –John C. Maxwell
Have you ever been a victim of a network drive-by? Or been personally violated by people claiming to be networking but are just out for themselves and what you can do for them? If you’ve been left with a bad taste in your mouth for networking and think it’s just for blood sucking shameless self-promoters…read on!
As I have traveled around the country speaking to people about the power of netWORTHing™ one thing has become clear; people are looking for a change. People have a lot of pain around traditional self-serving networking. Everyone has been burned by someone who in the name of networking, is only pursuing their own selfish agenda.
Networking, unfortunately has been very misunderstood and abused. I believe the true intention of networking, the real spirit behind it was good and was originally born from an abundance mentality. However, life is challenging and when the economy is bad or opportunities become scarce, people get sucked into believing that things will never change and that if we don’t fight for every morsel we won’t get a slice of the business pie. Scarcity mentality lurks all around us and we have to make a conscious choice to choose not to participate in that.
Unfortunately, sometimes people inflicted with scarcity mentality will say that they’re networking but all they care about is themselves and what they could take and get from you. They approach their network with their hands down clawing away at any leads they can find treating everyone as a transaction.
NetWORTHers approach their network with a connecting mentality, with their hands up, saying, how can I be a resource for you? How could my network of information, opportunities and connections be of value to you? How could my NetWORTH or social capital help you? It’s impossible to push your own selfish agenda when you give expecting nothing in return.
Great NetWORTHers are not born, they are created. NetWORTHers believe in the law of abundance. They believe there is plenty of business, ideas, clients, customers and jobs for everyone. All you have to do to start netWORTHing is intentionally stand at the intersection of life looking for ways to connect people, opportunities and ideas. NetWORTHing is not about you, it’s always about them!
As technology drives our communication world further and further ahead, creating a time-poor society due to an overload of emails, smart phones, instant messaging and internet becoming a smart netWORTHer and treating networking as a life skill not just something you do to get something, you will not only become a leader that people want to get behind, but you will reap huge rewards both personally and professionally.
What are some ways you practice netWORTHing with your network?