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I haven’t got a degree, I remembered telling a young intern beaming in his summa cum laude world over a hello-welcome-to-the-fucking-real-world lunch. But I’ve got at least ten names you can call to ask about me. That was of course many years ago, before Google became a verb.

The biggest misconception about networking I have discovered, and tragedy at that, is that we believe it is about who we know, and not what they know about us (sorry, Harvey Mackay, gotta disagree with you there with your original statement).

I don’t have 40 years of research to back my theory up, nor the patience for it, but here’s a scenario:

You’re Madonna (play along with me here). You’ve met a graphic designer once on the airplane en route to New York. He was lucky enough to be seated next to you. In a 14-hour flight. You exchanged small talk between a movie on Krisworld and 20-something pages of People magazine. Finally, you exchanged business cards and bid goodbye as you passed customs. He emails you the week after, asking if you’d let him design your next album cover.

Would you possibly let him design your next album cover? Would you fight for him to design your album cover against your record company and all of them pesky annoying members from your Marketing department all because of one encounter? Possibly… If his name’s Stefan Sagmeister. Why is that so? Because you know about him. You know about his beautiful works, his breathtaking concepts, and the brands and people who’ve trusted him. Like The Rolling Stones.

I repeat; because you know about him.

While the airplane encounter provides an opportunity to harvest, chances are, nothing would’ve been born out of that single encounter. This isn’t a Hollywood movie. Influential people who can make a significant difference in your life meet hundreds of hopeful graphic designers every day. Just because you were seated next to one on the same airplane doesn’t mean you’re about to be the next Stefan Sagmeister. It just means you have something new to brag about on Facebook. That’s about it really. Nothing more than just a Facebook update (yes I’m guilty as charged).

I won’t go as far as to list the people I know who know me (I may be a showoff but I do have a little bit of humility under my Paul Smiths), but I can tell you the one thing that has been key in my professional career thus far – my reputation. The engine to a car. The brain to a body. The chicken in chicken rice. My reputation isn’t just imperative in my career, it is the key reason why I have a career.

My reputation is my main currency in networking. The perceived value of my currency is determined by 2 factors; knowledge and performance. Knowledge, while important, is nothing without application and delivery. People in general have a misconception that a good memory is akin to intelligence (and no, I’m not favouring practitioners over academicians here) but at the end of the day, you have to walk the talk. While the typical me cannot be arsed to please everyone, I make sure I live up to expectations (and ok, I’m smart enough to manage expectations as well).

An extract from the book The Power of Networking by Robyn Henderson reveals 3 basic principles of networking:

1 | THE LAW OF ABUNDANCE
I don’t mean to sound like some naïve eager beaver, but there are opportunities everywhere. You just have to keep your bloody eyes open and stop waiting for gold to drop from the skies.

About 2 years ago, I backlash on a brand for disappointing me with about 800-something beautifully brutal words on blankanvas. A month back, I received an email from the same brand, inviting me to pitch for their business. The email won me over. It started with “Hi Pat, this is from the store you’d never visit again”. I appreciate a brand with vision and courage. And yes, yours truly won the business. Yay.

2 | THE LAW OF RECIPROCITY
Always give back. I have a soft spot for good local talents and I try to help, in whatever way I can. It makes me feel good and that’s enough for me really. What I’ve never imagined was the help I got back in return. My company, GOODSTUPH, was born from the hands of the kind souls around me. I’ll save the details for another post, but it is true what they say: what you give out comes back tenfold.

3 | THE LAW OF GIVING WITHOUT EXPECTATION
It sounds like bullshit but you know what? I do give without expectation. I do so because by empowering others, I empower myself. Traders invest in stocks, I invest in people. The latter is far more fulfilling.

I can’t say I’m a walking Facebook as much as I dare say I’ve been lucky, for someone who doesn’t belong in any gentle(wo)men’s club by virtue of my bloodline or academic performance.  Here’s 10 tips from the same person who first asked her lecturer “What is Networking Marketing?” before she even lost her virginity (yeah, ok, I was a late bloomer).

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1.  Walk your talk. You know that fluffer with a beer gut who rattles on and on about his blahblahblah insights in some trade magazine but has absolutely nothing on his portfolio to truly call his own? Don’t be him. Let your work do the talking.

2. Always carry your business cards with you. ALWAYS.

3. Listen before you speak. It’s like meeting your girlfriend/ boyfriend’s mates for the first time. Make them like you by letting them know you’re interested in what they’re saying.

4. It’s humanly impossible to like everyone equally, but always be fair. My bloggers would know that as much as I may like some better than others, I would always play fair. My clients pay me to market their brands, not increase my own popularity. Which is why I have a pet peeve against client-bloggers who invite their own blogger-friends to events in spite of the complete irrelevance.

5. Form alliances with people who matter. Quality supercedes quantity. I can’t say I know everyone in every advertising agency in Singapore, but I can say that I know a good number of top-ranked creative directors and managing directors on a first-name basis.

6. Do not belittle the sidekick. Beyond the fact that it is basic respect you should have for human beings regardless of rank, the sidekick is the closest aide to the person you want to connect with.

7. Share your knowledge, but not all of it. I enjoy exercising my creativity and sharing my ideas, but I know a timewaster when I see one. There will be sneaky bastards who will take your ideas and call them their own. Be flattered, but be careful too.

8. Speak up. The problem with us Asians, unlike the Americans… we suck at marketing ourselves. Humility is a virtue, but being left unnoticed is pathetic. Speaking up is good for you, so long as you have the goods to back it up. How do you think I get away with being me?

9. Never break a promise. Ever. Do not underestimate the power of trust.

10. Your network is not for sale. It’s great to marry one talent to another, but its absolutely distasteful to go “Oh I know so-and-so” just so as to build your network. It goes back to what I’ve said in the beginning – it’s not who you know, but what those people know about you. Name-dropping is low class. You might be better off clad in a Giodarno tee.

Anyone has anymore to add?

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