Love this take on genuine connections! So true that they're like the mycelium of our lives, branching out and nourishing everything. Absolutely important to grow in life, both professional or personal!
I really enjoyed your essay! One of the best reframes I’ve encountered is that networking is simply having interesting conversations with interesting people.
Good stuff, makes me think of this quote from Never Eat Alone, “ “Later in life as I rubbed shoulders with business leaders, store owners, politicians, and movers and shakers of all stripes, I started to gain a sense of how our country’s most successful people reach out to others, and how they invite those people’s help in accomplishing their goals. I learned that real networking was about finding ways to make other people more successful. It was about working hard to give more than you get.”
I think I just found a new best friend. My Substack is named Serendipity Lab for these exact reasons:
"BECAUSE life literally is about who you know— dream jobs and careers, deep romances and friendships, great ideas and stories, all started with one person bold and curious enough to reach out to another."
A quote that has always stuck with me is "Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet" - it's a pleasure to meet you Carly :)
So, I share something that played the chords of my heart:
“From being so immersed in a conversation that you leave a changed person to getting a job through a friend of a friend.
These precious, golden moments. Sometimes it feels like fate, like we were just in the right place at the right time, sometimes like years in the making.”
The previous text described perfectly how I felt sometimes and the visceral sensation of meeting with or reaching out to people and feeling like the universe is conjuring for that moment in the history of billions of years.
I recently discovered the joy of networking a couple of months ago. Since then, I have met many people, and many of them became new opportunities for me or enabled them.
Last week, I met one guy randomly at an event; he reached out to me at the end of the event, IDK why, and told me the unfortunate story of the business center he is leading being sent off from the building suddenly from one of their shareholders. I activated my network, and now we are helping them resolve it.
A handful of weeks ago, I showed up to meet the same person I activated to solve the previous problem, and he made me meet with people to whom I owe a tremendous positive month in my life, just what I needed now. And a great future that will bring success to our lives. I wrote about this dots-connection here: https://matteocervelli.ck.page/posts/observe-points
Well, I love it. I understood that I enjoy people’s stories so much that I am a platform. So, I’m transitioning from “helping organizations” to “building ecosystems”. Weird, huh?
Thanks for sharing the actionable parts; it made me think about what I am trying to improve, to be more curious, to be there to help, not to take.
It was rejuvenating to meet you in a random breakout room, Carly.
I really liked this essay, Carly! Networking has changed my life, once I learned how to do it properly. In the spirit of point #4, I will say that I really enjoyed the connection between networking and mycelium. It helped set the stage for the article perfectly.
Such a great and actionable piece Carly -- Your advice to reach out to people "who are responsible for making the things you love" is such a great reframe. It changes the relationship from fan worship, which is sort of scary for both people, to 'shared idea celebration'. SO much gold in here. Well done!
Lovely and wise advice carly, I only wish I knew and did reach out to people earlier in my life, my social network graph would've been very different.
Recently, i've let random "synchronicity" take course in my life and it took me to surprising ends (https://bryanspassionpath.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/144666849?referrer=%2Fpublish%2Fposts)
Serendipity can be super charged by your reach out concept!
Love this take on genuine connections! So true that they're like the mycelium of our lives, branching out and nourishing everything. Absolutely important to grow in life, both professional or personal!
It just might be, if that email is coming from Substack
Oh wow so true 🥲
“Try to send a message only you could send and only they could receive”
This is the kind of networking I can get behind - loved reading this!
I really enjoyed your essay! One of the best reframes I’ve encountered is that networking is simply having interesting conversations with interesting people.
Good stuff, makes me think of this quote from Never Eat Alone, “ “Later in life as I rubbed shoulders with business leaders, store owners, politicians, and movers and shakers of all stripes, I started to gain a sense of how our country’s most successful people reach out to others, and how they invite those people’s help in accomplishing their goals. I learned that real networking was about finding ways to make other people more successful. It was about working hard to give more than you get.”
This turned out to be great, Carly! Glad I was able to help in my own small way. And you definitely have me thinking about networking differently.
I think I just found a new best friend. My Substack is named Serendipity Lab for these exact reasons:
"BECAUSE life literally is about who you know— dream jobs and careers, deep romances and friendships, great ideas and stories, all started with one person bold and curious enough to reach out to another."
A quote that has always stuck with me is "Strangers are just friends you haven't met yet" - it's a pleasure to meet you Carly :)
I really enjoyed this, Carly!
It's definitely a thesis. Thankyou for the push to reach out to the leaders who inspire me!
So, I share something that played the chords of my heart:
“From being so immersed in a conversation that you leave a changed person to getting a job through a friend of a friend.
These precious, golden moments. Sometimes it feels like fate, like we were just in the right place at the right time, sometimes like years in the making.”
The previous text described perfectly how I felt sometimes and the visceral sensation of meeting with or reaching out to people and feeling like the universe is conjuring for that moment in the history of billions of years.
I recently discovered the joy of networking a couple of months ago. Since then, I have met many people, and many of them became new opportunities for me or enabled them.
Last week, I met one guy randomly at an event; he reached out to me at the end of the event, IDK why, and told me the unfortunate story of the business center he is leading being sent off from the building suddenly from one of their shareholders. I activated my network, and now we are helping them resolve it.
A handful of weeks ago, I showed up to meet the same person I activated to solve the previous problem, and he made me meet with people to whom I owe a tremendous positive month in my life, just what I needed now. And a great future that will bring success to our lives. I wrote about this dots-connection here: https://matteocervelli.ck.page/posts/observe-points
Well, I love it. I understood that I enjoy people’s stories so much that I am a platform. So, I’m transitioning from “helping organizations” to “building ecosystems”. Weird, huh?
Thanks for sharing the actionable parts; it made me think about what I am trying to improve, to be more curious, to be there to help, not to take.
It was rejuvenating to meet you in a random breakout room, Carly.
Wow I absolutely love this, thanks so much for sharing your experience!
I really liked this essay, Carly! Networking has changed my life, once I learned how to do it properly. In the spirit of point #4, I will say that I really enjoyed the connection between networking and mycelium. It helped set the stage for the article perfectly.
Lovely to see how the piece came out in the end Carly! I’ll be saving these tips for my future reference.
Such a great and actionable piece Carly -- Your advice to reach out to people "who are responsible for making the things you love" is such a great reframe. It changes the relationship from fan worship, which is sort of scary for both people, to 'shared idea celebration'. SO much gold in here. Well done!
Fantastic advice that I'm going to be putting into practice!