My friend Scott shared this on Google Reader yesterday:
Study Finds Business Plans a Waste of Time
The golden nugget of wisdom: "Social connections trump business plans by a long shot". Boy howdy, can I attest to that. It makes me hope that the commenters' claims (about venture capitalists falling on hard times because they don't read business plans) are true.
The concept of networking is completely abstract to me. Essentially, two people create a relationship of little substance so they can trade business favors. It's absolutely nothing like genuine friendship, and realizing that Jane and I will either have to play the game or fail at raising money is somewhat soul-crushing. It reminds me of the Radiohead song "Paranoid Android". The fact that it's illegal for me to publicly advertise my investment offering is immensely frustrating. Is networking much different, aside from being less efficient?
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4 comments:
Networking isn't really so bad once you get used to it. It's just like mingling with strangers at a college kegger, except sometimes the people aren't total idiots!
Ha! I'm having fun envisioning a fundraising process where I ask the most privileged, incoherently-drunk college kids I can find to put me in touch with their parents.
That might actually work...
I've been told I'm a great networker, but the idea you stated, of two people creating a surface-relationship to further their own goals, makes me feel ill as well. I think there are two forms of networking.. To use an SEO term... Organic and Paid. I don't go out of my way to meet people who can help further my brewery. But I do love to meet people, hear their goals, and introduce them to friends who can help them. I like that kind of networking. I don't like the "Here is an event for the sole purpose of getting you leads" networking.
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