Headline Jan 25, 2018/ ''' NETWORKING NAY NONWORKING '''

''' NETWORKING NAY NONWORKING '''

ALL STUDENTS OFTEN believe that if they simply meet more important people, their work will  improve, and-

!WOW! -we have a Lift - off.

*BUT it's remarkably hard to engage with those people unless you've already put something valuable out into the world*.

Not long ago, after interviewing a venture capitalist onstage, I announced to the audience that we would take questions but no pitches. 

The first person at the microphone asked the investor to fund his start-up.

I cringed as the second person started to pitch, too. Our educational event had quickly turned into a bad episode of ''Shark Tank''.

The following week, at a similar event, I student ask a C.E.O for her personal email address in front of the crowd.

I've been stunned by the lengths people will go to at tech  business conferences to make a connection  with a big name : sneaking backstage for a selfie, slipping business cards into briefcases, chasing them out the exit.

IF the every thought of Networking makes you throw up in your mouth, you're not alone.

NETWORKING makes us feel dirty -to the point that one study found that people rate soap and toothpaste 19 percent more positively after imagining themselves angling professional contacts at a cocktail party. Just reading that research want to make a take a shower.

YET we've all been warned that it's not what you know,  it's who you know.

Success is supposed to come to the suave schmoozers and social butterflies.   

It's true that networking can help you accomplish great things. But this obscures the opposite truth : Accomplish great things help you develop a network.

Look at the big breaks in entertainment.

For  George Lucas , a turning point was when Francis ford Coppola hired him as a  production assistant  and went on to mentor him. Mr. Lucas didn't schmooze his way into the relationship, though.

As a  film student he'd won a first prize at a  national festival and a scholarship to be an apprentice on a  Warner Bros, film -he'd picked one of Mr. Coppola's.

OR take Justin Bieber's career : Although it took off after Usher signed him, he didn't network his way into that meeting.

Mr. Bieber taught himself to sing and play four instruments, put a handful of videos on YouTube , and a manager ended up clicking on one.

Adele was discovered that way too.

She wrote and recorded three-song demo, a friend posted it on Myspace, and a music exec heard it. Developing talent -and sharing it-  catapulted them into those connections.

For entrepreneurs, too, achievement is a magnet to mentors and a beacon to backers.

Spanx took off when Oprah Winfrey  chose it as one of her favorite things of  the year -but not because was stalked by the company's founder, Sara Blakely.

For two and half years, Ms. Blakely sold fax machines by day so that she could build her prototype of footless pantyhose by night. She sent one from the first batch to Ms. Winfrey.

Networks help, of course.

In a study of Internet security start-ups, having a previous connection to an investor increased the odds of getting funded by that investor in the first year.    

But it was pretty much irrelevant afterward.

Accomplishments were the dominant driver of who invested over time.

The Honor and Serving of the  Latest Operational Research on Society and Thinking continues.

With respectful dedication to the Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya all ''register'' on !WOW! -the World Students Society and Twitter- !E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011:

''' Net To Work '''

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless