Don't Network a Bad Reputation

I had the good fortune today to be directed to a blog post by Steve Chandler, a multi-book author, coach, speaker and consultant. The post is "I can't get to you from here." In it, he talks about the believe that it's not what you know, but who you know. The story is worth reading, there are multiple lessons in it.

Here's Steve's first point:

• It doesn't matter if you know a lot of people (i.e have a big network) if you don't do something terrific.

Of course! If you are mediocre, or lousy, or sloppy at what you do, all that networking is going to accomplish for you is to make sure that a lot of people know you don't do a good job. Absolutely you have to be able to back up your networking with work, products, and services that are excellent.

His second point:

• You can achieve great things if you don't know it's impossible or very improbable.

So often, it's not reality that trips us up, it's our perception of reality. There is a great book called "The Phantom Tollbooth" in which the main character accomplishes something impossible because no one told him it was impossible. The book is intended for children, but I think I'll hunt down a copy and keep it with my motivational reading.