Creating Opportunity In a Growing City

2 CommentsSaturday • March 13, 2010 • by Paul Letourneau

As a young professional with high hopes and dreams to one day become a CEO, Partner or Executive Director for an international company, I am beginning to learn that there is one thing that if done correctly, can get me there in half the time of my predecessors. This isn’t a new concept or something that I have taken and re-invented.  In fact, there are thousands of books on this topic and countless startups, inventions and joint venture business deals have come from this very source.

If you are similar to me in that you have aspirations to be great and climb your way to the top, I cannot overstate the importance of networking. These actions need to become part of your daily routine. Meeting people and finding the connections between those people and your goals and dreams is an essential step if you ever actually plan on getting to where you want to go.

Someone once told me… “It’s not who you know or what you know, it’s what you know about whom you know that will get you there.”

Here’s a challenge for you. Stop what you’re doing and think about the following statement for a minute. “It’s what you know about whom you know….”

If this statement scares you a little, it may be because this means that you have some work ahead of you. It may be time to get a little personal and find out as much as you can about ‘the people you know’. The scariest part might be that you’ll actually be surprised to find out that you don’t really know all those contacts that you ‘thought you knew.’ Perhaps they don’t know you either.

So, take some time and clean out your list. Figure out who brings value to your life, your career and your future. As a result, I promise you you’ll have more energy to create opportunities with those still on your list.

Next, its time to give value back to those people that currently give you value in your life. Here is what you need to ask yourself. What do you know about them? What are their goals? Who do they need to be introduced to? If you don’t know anyone to introduce them to, consider where can you find the right people and tools to assist them.

Let’s face it. No one is willing to give without having some idea that they are going to receive something in return. Actually, most deals and mergers and structured in the following manner: company A gets the rights to something and company B gets a designated amount of money. It’s a win win, right?

But you’re not a company. You’re on your own with a handful of people in your phone.  And you may have big dreams that are starting to look further and further away.

Here’s what I have done.

Over the past few years, I have tried countless ways to find people that I think not only can help me, but to whom I believe I also can offer assistance. I’ve gone to networking meetings, joined business opportunity clubs and even gone to big seminars and events where there are thousands of people just waiting to jump and buy whatever the presenter is selling. Although some may argue that these events are a great way to meet people, I stand behind my decision that many are ineffective. You have to know how to pick the right ones to go to and ignore the ones that are going to be a waste of time. Unfortunately, there is no set way to define which are good and which are not unless you go to a few of these events and see for yourself. By starting to engage in local events, you are doing the one thing that sets you apart from others. You’re joining in on the conversation.

Are you on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? These are all tools that allow people to have a conversation with you.  Often times social networking serves as a placeholder for people to find out what you’re all about. When managed correctly, you can search, connect and learn from people and about organizations that you otherwise would have never known about.

I also typically read 3-5 blog posts from local entrepreneurs and organizations every day. I follow #yeg on Twitter to find out about local people, events and news. I take select people out for lunch to pick their brains and find out more about them and how they’ve gotten to where they are now. The key to this activity is when you get the chance to have that person one on one, you need to be prepared, ask pointed questions and listen. There is no need for a note pad or laptop. Go and listen to their story and their trials and tribulations, and view these details as a learning experience. If you do this right, usually all it takes is 15-20 minutes or one cup of coffee to find out how they’ve achieved their goals and what you may need to avoid to get where you want to go. From there, it’s up to you.

Another great way to connect with people and companies is using some of the online tools that are available to everyone. If I am interested in a company, I’ll often search them out on Google and check LinkedIn to see if any of my connections work there. If not, I add new connections that hold positions similar to the ones that I would like to hold if I were with their company.

Here’s the thing. All of these items… the connecting, lunches, and seminars don’t have to cost you all that much financially. Like everything else in business, you need an operating budget. For someone that is just starting out or has the same aspirations that I do, these things all need to be in that budget. The real cost comes in with the amount of time you spend researching, connecting and going to these events. Yes, that means actually doing the work. There is no magic formula and it’s not easy, but I figure neither is being the CEO of an international organization. So, I look at all of this as my training grounds for things to come. I understand that in order to get where I want to go, I have to be willing to do the things that others aren’t.

Everyone is different. Some want to be at the top, while others are more than happy to work at the bottom or mid-level in an organization. The goal is to be the best you can be and to give back as much as you possibly can during the time you have allocated. The ways you go about doing that are up to you.

Posted in: Business Development, Consulting, Entrepreneurialism, Tools

Tagged with: Business, Consulting, Networking, Social Media