Piotr Jakubowski – Mind over Marketing

After a welcome-back discussion with one of my mentors today, we began talking about mindset of the go-getter college student. We came to the conclusion that there are two types of go-getters. The first is the person who tries to meet as many people as possible and becomes thrilled by the idea of networking with many people. The second is the person who develops rich relationships.

Hundreds of books have been written about the importance of relationships, yet there are so many people out there who still don’t understand this idea.

One thing is certain; it’s about who you know, and not how many people you know. I would, without hesitation, take one of my strong relationships up against a person with hundreds of people they “know”. And I can guarantee that help would come quicker from the stronger relationship. The largest network is not always the best. In fact, the larger the network, the more difficult it becomes to maintain strong ties with everybody within the network.

For those who have been in a frenzy to meet as many people as possible, remember this. Slow down a little bit and develop stronger mutual relationships. Take the time to genuinely get to know the other person, and make sure they feel the same thing about you. Not only will you get more respect, but you will develop a stronger relationship that could provide a channel of assistance in the future. Once you focus on strength, you can develop the size. At this point, you will not have to worry about the reliability of the network.

So remember – despite what the cellular phone operators tell you, a stronger network is exponentially more important than a larger network.

Strength = Reliability