Everyday, there are opportunities all around us. Companies are buying and selling products and service, people are exchanging ideas on how to make money or ways employees can move up the corporate ladder, and major deals are being negotiated in boardrooms and coffee shops. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, there are millions of transactions that are going on. So, how is it that if there is so much going on, that the majority of us are missing out and stuck in a rut? One of the reasons is because we don’t know how to effectively gain access to opportunities that are available. The key to unlocking potential opportunities and getting that “big break” is through other people.

Networking is a very powerful technique that we need to learn how to master if we want to advance in our personal, business, and professional lives. It is indeed an art that has to be practiced over time so that you can learn how to maximize the benefits of it. One of the biggest misunderstandings about networking is that it’s about selling your services/products. If you are lucky, that’s only one of many benefits that may come along later. But true networking is about selling who you are, as a person, and building relationships that are sustainable. Just like with any relationship, you have to start by courting people in order to get them to know you, like you, and most importantly, to trust you. Too often, we put the cart before the horse when we are looking for people to help us. For example, when someone does a drive-by on your social networking site, drops a page full information about their products/services, and you have no idea who they are, that’s not networking. That’s spamming or junk mail. Or if you own a printing company and you meet the head of an advertisement firm and the first thing you do is start rattling off about your services, that’s not networking. That’s like being a telemarketer.

True networking is about doing for others. Just like any other relationship, there are phases that you have to go through in order to get to your ultimate goal. At times, you will luck up and automatically get an opportunity without all of the courting, but if you want to keep those opportunities flowing, such as referrals for more business, then you have to engage in the art of networking and building relationships with key people. Once that has been established, then you can move on to getting down to business.