Networking Is A Contact Sport

If you have not read "Networking Is A Contact Sport" by Joe Sweeney, we highly recommend it.

If you don't know and engage with anyone in your lane, you are not being as successful as you potentially could be. Even if the person is not in the same field as you, crossover networking can be a conduit for other avenues for opportunities.

You do not know everything there is to know and forming relationships with others in your chosen field can help you advance each other's causes. Networking is not meant for you to find new people to solicit. It is meant for you to form professional relationships that may or may not have financial dividends. Mostly, Networking is an opportunity to get to know others well enough to form personal and professional relationships. These relationships in turn can build communities and, as it's defined, a means to reach out across many bridges to bring people together or in contact with someone else that may be able to support their endeavors.

Networking requires the active participation of 'give and take' - but more so, giving. If you find that you are on the receiving end of Networking more than on the giving end - STOP! You're doing it completely wrong.