“Everyone you’ll ever meet knows something you don’t.” (Bill Nye)

In the last six months I've met over 50 new 'cracked' founders, operators and just generally interesting and exceptional people. Many gave me trajectory altering advice or ideas, a few offered me jobs and internships, still less became people I'd call genuine friends, and one encounter even indirectly led to a date. [1]

I hate the word networking because of its disingenuous connotations, but it's the right word to describe meeting people for work related reasons.

I'd like to think that I'm better than those people that try to meet people to further their professional aspirations but I'm not. I want to, and do, meet people with the intention of advancing my personal goals - professional or otherwise.

And to be honest it's one of the most effective ways to do so.

I've benefitted immensely from meeting the right people at the right time. Some of this has definitely been luck. But you can also do things to increase your surface area for serendipity.

Why waste time networking when you can just do the work?

“Networking is overrated… Do something great and your network will instantly emerge" - Naval

It's true that if you do great work then your network will more or less appear around you.

But even if you are an exceptional individual, doing truly great work and solving hard problems usually requires some great people. And great people are hard to find. So the ability to find and meet the right people at the right time is one of the most useful skills you can develop.

And zooming out from work for a second, I've found people are always the most important part in life.

How do you meet the right people at the right time?

Read Dale Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends & Influence People' if you want some basic social skills. [2] Then:

1. Establish who you want to connect with and why

2. Figure out how you can add value and help them

3. Do it and communicate it to them

4. Repeat step three until you connect

And here are some pointers for the steps above:

• Put in lots of effort (personalise, show interest, follow-up, make it convenient)

• Be strategic (selection, super-connectors, leverage competitive advantages, use existing communities)

• Drop your ego (don't take rejection personally)

• Play long-term games (don't be transactional or exploitative)

• Give before you ask (add-value, help people)

• Be authentic and earnest (don't bullshit, don't glaze)

• Stand out (do something interesting/unique/funny)

Footnotes

[1] Before you delete hinge and download LinkedIn, this was never the intention AND the date kinda sucked.

[2] Even if you have social skills it's worth a skim at least once.