Who will I network with and who will I not?

Who will I network with and who will I not?

This is my personal view on who I will network with who I won’t, and I'm going to explain why.

I want to network with real human beings with whom I can create a relationship get to know them, understand them, like them, follow them, help them out, recommend people they should be talking to, and so on and so forth.

Why should I do that with people who are not authentic, who did not want to reveal who they are, or anything about themselves? I'd further ask, what on earth are they doing in a networking space?

So those I will not network with are all those who haven't provided a whole, full, proper name, who hide behind a logo or avatar, so I have no idea what they look like. Those that use aliases, in short, those who simply are not authentic, and don't want to share who and what they are, with anybody else. Guess what? I'm going to grant their wish and not network with them!

For me to network with you such that we both have the intention to form a mutually supportive relationship, possibly over years, it starts with establishing trust and authenticity, after all, who wants to relate to a liar?

So, I need both real names, I need a genuine e-mail that reaches them personally, it does not go through a secretary, PA, corporate headquarters, or anybody else. The same is true with the phone number. Ideally one that we can use on WhatsApp, to communicate quickly and efficiently.

If you can do that, then let's have a 121 on zoom or WhatsApp video where we can see each other's faces, body language, reactions, and so on. How else could either of us learn who and what we really are? 

If we don't want to do that, frankly networking is not for us.

Maurice Help Desk