Victory through Successful Networking

Today’s post is by David Bradford, author of UP YOUR GAME: 6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

The story is told of two woodcutters who decided to compete against one another to see which of them could cut down more trees in an eight-hour period of time. They started simultaneously; but, after one hour, one of them heard that the other had stopped cutting trees.

The first woodcutter, believing that this was his opportunity to gain a competitive advantage, redoubled his efforts. Ten minutes passed, and he heard the second woodcutter had recommenced his endeavors. After about another hour, the first cutter heard that his combatant had stopped again. Feeling confident that he had gained an important edge in the competition, the first woodcutter continued to chop vigorously.

This continued throughout the day with one woodcutter stopping for ten minutes and the other working non-stop. The first woodcutter was completely certain he had won the prize but was dismayed to learn that he finished a distant second to cutter number two. “How did it happen?” he asked his competitor. “Very simple,” answered the second woodcutter.” “Each hour, I stopped my work for ten minutes. And when you were busy continuing to cut trees, I sharpened my ax.” There is no doubt that both woodcutters worked very hard, but the second woodcutter secured his victory by working smart and efficiently.

Building Your Network

Building a world-class network takes hard work, time, and smart organization. With each passing day, one needs to do something to scale up his or her network to make it as efficient and usable as possible. To scale up your network effectively, you have to do two things: work hard and work smart.

Interestingly, the same thing is true of becoming a great leader. Vince Lombardi, the famous football coach, once said: “Leaders aren’t born. They are made. And they are made just like anything else, through hard work. And that’s the price we’ll have to pay to achieve that goal, or any goal.” And I might add that includes the goal of building a scaled up, world-class network.

Working hard requires tenacity and discipline. Working smart requires analyzing a problem and finding the quickest, most effective strategy to solving it. In my years of business and leadership, I have seen that building a strong network is the smartest “hard work” you can do. It can open doors, align you with others with complementary skill sets, and place you in the presence of people who know things you do not know—thus shortening the learning curve in any endeavor or business pursuit.

Build Your Chances for Success

Networking is plain hard work. One must first create the connections, then organize them, then feed, cultivate, and nurture them with consistent, committed follow-up. Most importantly, one must perform these tasks even when momentum is low, drive has dwindled, and outlooks are not promising. Enthusiasm is often lost in the minutiae, and profound impact does not happen instantaneously. Hype for the endeavor will not be enough to keep one committed to the required effort. This is why many will give up on the program and settle for less-than-stellar results. As Steve Young, NFL Hall of Fame quarterback once told me, “Some things in life you cannot get around; you have to go straight through.” Hard work in building and maintaining a killer network is one of those.

By leveraging your connections, prioritizing your relationships, working with the end in mind, making the law of reciprocity work for you, using social media, giving it all you’ve got, and building a killer team, you too can successfully Up Your Game and your chances for success.

When has your network helped you succeed? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.

– David Bradford, “The Bottlecap Kid,” is Executive Chairman and former CEO of HireVue, former CEO of Fusion-io, and a member of the Utah Technology Council Hall of Fame. David is known for accelerating the growth and performance of game-changing organizations by utilizing his “UP Principles” which he outlines in his new book, UP YOUR GAME: 6 Timeless Principles for Networking Your Way to the Top (CLICK HERE to get your copy). Learn more about David and UP YOUR GAME at DavidBradford.com.

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