Today I went to an event that was simply a way to meet more people to generate new contacts. While it was okay, I’m kind of surprised to see that for a lot of these events certain people are reluctant to speak to others who are in the same field/industry as they are.
I once had this funny experience where I attended an event and as expected people began to talk to each other to find out more about what they do and offer. The activity was to simply speak to the person right next to you. The person that I talked to just happened to run a business that offered some of the same type of services as myself and it was definitely an odd conversation.
Essentially, I took it as a positive where maybe we can discuss about tools and challenges that we have experienced in our business. The person instead saw it from a different view and figured that I was their “competitor†and so they didn’t want to reveal anything to me. It’s one thing to want to protect your trade secrets and another to be overly paranoid to the point that you are cutting off ties with people you may potentially need in the future. Strangely enough, that was indeed the case with this scenario.
You never know as what you don’t need today may be something you do need tomorrow. At the same time, it can be great to collaborate with others in such a way that both parties will benefit.