Here is a short story about one person's Business Networking success. Not so long ago there was a wonderful guy named David Mahoney. An Irish-Catholic kid from the streets of the Bronx. He set his goal at being great success in the advertising business. After working his way through business school he went to New York's biggest ad agency, figuratively flashed his sheepskin and asked for a job. They smiled and said the only job they had available wasn't for a B-school grad. It was in the mail rooom. "I'll take it," he said. He made sure the job of delivering mail put him in touch with virtually every person, high and low, in the company. He learned a lot by observing how the creative people worked and, frankly, reading their mail. That took care of business networking on the job. But what about after hours? How do you meet the right people? Well, Mahoney's idea was simple: go where the movers and shakers liked to go. Then as now one of the top watering holes in New York was the restaurant "21." Mahoney would put a sharp crease in his trousers and several nights a week station himself at the bar of "21," carefully nursing a drink so as not to spend money he didn't have. Before long, many of the movers and shakers started buying him drinks, and dinner. He was probably the only mail clerk the bar at "21" had ever known. Within two and a half years young David Mahoney was the youngest vice president of the ad agency. He went on to become the CEO of several of the great American corporations. It's called business networking, folks. Career success networking. It means sticking your neck out and going where most success hungry people fear to tread. Right into the ranks of the movers and shakers. |
