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- Hate networking? Let's change that 🗣️
Hate networking? Let's change that 🗣️
Stephen Moore
December 12, 2023
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Welcome to EH Weekly, the new newsletter from the team behind Medium’s biggest entrepreneur-focused publication.
You can look forward to insightful lessons and practical takeaways delivered to your inbox every week.
In this week’s edition, we discuss:
Hate networking? 6 insights from a Google Exec that will change that
The 5 crippling mistakes that will ruin your startup
-Hate networking? Let’s change that
“To change how you feel about networking, you need to change how you view networking.”
Daniel Rizea, Director of Engineering at Google, believes we don’t enjoy networking because we look at it from the wrong angle. Here, he shares some killer insights to help you flip the script on networking.
1. It’s the access, not the numbers — You don’t need 100s of people in various industries to gain access to other people or precious pieces of information you could benefit from. One highly connected individual can give you that access, and the cost of maintaining the relationship is lower.
2. You have to be intentional — Say you’re looking for a mentor inside your company or for an investor for your startup. This may prompt you what are the next steps you need to take. Go to company retreats or join startup events more regularly.
3. You need to get better at “cold calling” — What is your list of influential people that, if you had in your network, would impact your life considerably? Cold calling is how you get these people into your network. The first step is to introduce yourself and get a few minutes of their time.
4. You need to give before you ask. The law of 1 — Folks hesitate to help or give you something if they have just met you. The bigger the ask, the bigger the hesitation. Time is required for the relationship to evolve for asks to be made. You need to wait and provide value in the meantime.
5. Increasing your value decreases your effort — The more value you can provide, the less effort you need to put into building and keeping your network because others will ensure they contact you. Just don’t forget to show and practice your craft so that others find out about you.
6. You’ve built it, and now you need to maintain it — Networks are dynamic; they grow and shrink. You are the limiting factor of your network size, so ask yourself, what is the best size for your network?
👉️ Read more insights here — Why You Hate Networking and How to Change That
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The 5 crippling mistakes that ruin startups
In Hollywood, people throw around the term “15 minutes of fame”, implying that entertainment industry success is expectedly short-lived.
Rachel Greenberg argues that entrepreneurship should be the opposite. It might take fourteen minutes (more likely months or years) to finally reach your 15th minute of entrepreneurial traction, but that’s often where the real outcomes and successes begin, not when they end.
Here are 5 mistakes to avoid to ensure you hang on long enough to see them through.
The 14th-minute mistake — Startups are a combination of action, time and iteration. Jumping ship from one strategy to another just before the prior takes off or generates enough data for meaningful conclusions is wasting your company’s limited resources and a great way to ensure no strategy will achieve its full potential.
The itsy-bitsy sample size — Many founders judge their business based on unreliable data and jump to conclusions (and investments) that may not be right. It requires lots of reps to acquire enough data to draw conclusions that move your business forward.
The set-up to fall down — It isn’t a lack of control that tends to be many founders’ downfall. Instead, it’s the creation of unrealistic goals and impossible timelines that sets them up for ultimate failure.
The way to jack up your startup — If you try to cover all your bases before your company achieves any localized traction, you’re most likely to burn yourself out, dilute your message (by failing to capture an audience or authority on any one platform), and feel like you’re on a hamster wheel to nowhere. A better way: Pick your poison and keep it simple
Always chasing their tails — An entrepreneur with a little capital and a penchant for outsourcing can quickly dig their venture into a hole in which they end up financially chasing their tails, forever unable to catch up or get ahead. Keep your burn rate low and your team lean.
👉️ Learn more about the 5 Crippling Mistakes That Ruin Impulsive Entrepreneurs’ Startup Careers.