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Networking Through Time Book Excerpt: Part 1

Networking Through Time Book Excerpt: Part 1

I’ve been working on a book series called “Networking Through Time” for over a decade. I have yet to release the book, but its time will come. Meanwhile, here is an excerpt from the book:

Inside the Network

Networking.  What kinds to mind when you think of that word?  It’s a buzz word that’s getting a lot of attention these days, but too many people just don’t understand what it means.  In its essence, a network is a group of interconnected people or things.  Computers, electronics, and telephones are just a few examples of things that exist on a network.  Even our world’s oceans and lakes are networked together by rivers, streams, and other waterways that make the necessary connections.

At any point in time, you can choose to bring two of the things on the network to make a connection.  You can use them to introduce new connections and to spread information far and wide.  Data is constantly flowing in all directions, and if you aren’t plugged in, then you’re missing everything the world has to offer.  Networking is the way our world operates, just as it has from the very beginning of time.

Just examining how everything in the world is connected gives us a brilliant image of how we are all connected to one another.  Every single one of us needs other people, and by reaching out through your own personal networks, you can touch people you never even dreamed of.  Great power lies in your network, but most people have no idea how to harness that power if they even realize it exists.  In fact, there is so much power in networking that connections exist where you can’t even imagine.

For example, did you know that pop star Michael Jackson is exactly six degrees of separation from steel tycoon Andrew Carnegie?  That means there are only five people who knew each other between Carnegie and Jackson, and the two men weren’t even alive at the same time.  Carnegie is also six degrees of separation from Queen Victoria, the Crown Prince of Sweden during his day, and Mahatma Gandhi.

A Networking Time Capsule

We’ll talk more about these interesting connections later on in the book, but what we are interested in right now is how networking can connect you with other people who can help you succeed in whatever you’re doing.

This book is essentially a networking time capsule that allows us to step back through history and see how successful and great people of the past did their networking.  After all, they didn’t have cell phones or email in the time of Andrew Carnegie, so it took a lot more work to forge connections that really mattered.  But the value of those connections is quite evident through the success of the people whose networks we will consider.  We certainly do have a lot to learn from the networks included in this time capsule:

  • How did they create the connections that mattered?
  • How did they keep those connections strong even though some of them spanned entire countries, continents, or oceans?
  • What makes a connection into a quality connection?
  • What types of connections should exist in a given network?
  • Why did they connect with the people they did?
  • How did they use networking to create a close-knit group of people they could count on?
  • How did the quality of the connections compare to the number of connections?
  • How did the networks of famous people intersect and create a massive web of connections?
  • What caused important connections to be severed?

All of these lessons are an important part of taking the time to look through a networking time capsule like this book.  As the great Roman philosopher Cicero once said, “History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity.”

Without history, we would not know what kinds of connections were even possible in the past.  Who would imagine that Queen Victoria would ever be sitting down to dinner with then-U.S? General former U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant?  Until we understand the power of the network connections that existed in the past, we cannot see how to forge connections that will matter for our future.

 

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