Funny scenario I observed today. Essentially there was a trade show of sort where a person decided to attend and invited a few people to go with him as he wanted to mingle with them more to hopefully work out some potential future business partnerships. I know for a fact that there was one person that he really wanted to get a ton of pictures and stuff with as he thought that would be great for PR. In the process of this he basically in a sense ignored the other people who could equally be just as important for his future.
The reason was simple as he thought the person he was focusing on had immediate connections that was visibly apparent due to things like family relations. So the mindset was getting on his good side should help him in the future. But again he essentially ignored the other people and didn’t really want to show too much that he was with them.
What a mistake I thought as you just never know where someone in your life now may become a huge asset for you later on in the future. I can only imagine those people will remember that moment where in the future it’s like “Oh, so now you want to talk huh?” I guess for me I never personally treated things like networking as like some speed dating event. If I meet people I genuinely want to get to know them as a person and how I can help as if they were your very good friend.
There has been so many times in my life where I just helped people while being completely oblivious as to their professional background which in turn formed some great business relationships. It’s interesting how many times people forget that it’s a people business too where everyone is more than just a number.