[Principle #1] Stop thinking about yourself (cont'd)

Expanding your inner circle

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Expanding your inner circle

This is a follow-up post to Stop thinking about yourself.

To recap, I introduced the first principle to successful networking:

Principle #1: Stop thinking about yourself. Be patient - you will always get your chance.

Based on this principle, we posed two questions:

1. “Isn’t thinking about oneself the entire purpose of networking? Let’s be honest - we’re all here to advance ourselves.”

2. “How could I stop thinking about myself? We are intrinsically selfish human beings!”

I addressed the first question in the aforementioned post. Today we’ll address number two.

Although we’re intrinsically selfish, we’re also intrinsically weak.. and yet, we find ways to go to the gym. Surely enough, persistence and hard work gets us to BUILD on an intrinsically weak body.

In a similar manner, I’d like to suggest the parallel of going to the gym .. now applied to successful networking.

All of us have several family members or friends that we would do just about anything for. At times, people will introduce someone to us and that “family circle” begins to expand as we take this mentee under our wing.

In the first principle, I rolled out what I believe is the foundation of all networking — forgetting about yourself. Step two is taking every opportunity (no matter how “busy” you are) to lend a hand and expand your inner circle.

Takeaways:

• Lesson #1: Take every chance to lend a hand, thereby expanding your inner circle. Similar to compound interest, you will quickly lose track of the returns.

• Lesson #2: It’s always easier to say no - but that was also an easy way out for whoever helped you get to where you are today!

Exercise:

• Beginner: Do your best to help someone this week once you’re put into a position to help/advise them.

• Advanced: As opposed to taking a passive beginner approach to expanding your inner circle, take an active one - find someone who can use your advice this week!

Thoughts/questions on this post or have a suggestion for the next post? Please click below to post a comment!

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