Networking events, your own website, Facebook, and friends and family are the obvious methods for making connections; however, there is something far more fundamental than method determining your success in making connections, and that is your approach and your attitude.
If you go to a networking event of 100 people, shake everyone’s hand, introduce your venture briefly and gather 80 business cards, is that a job well done? Personally I think not. Networking events are full of people who are sniffing out where the power lies, where the money is; they are full of people waxing lyrical about their next Big Project while your eyes glaze over, whose eyes glaze over in turn when you get the chance to talk about your own project. The whole thing can be rather soulless, because if power, money and success are what you are looking for in your contacts, then by your own criteria you yourself are not worth knowing!
For me, good connections means surrounding yourself with like-minded people who have the same aims and ethics as you, whom you’ll stay in touch with for the rest of your life. They don’t come along very often. Going to that networking event and meeting one such person is a good yield.
Keep what you are really looking for in focus, be positive, and listen.
