Can you imagine never needing to look for a job again? How about never cold calling again? Or, never needing to open the Yellow Pages again? One thing can accomplish all of these things and many more. That is effective networking.

For those of you that have never heard of networking, you have been doing it to some degree your whole life. Your friends in school were part of your network. Your parents were part of your network. Your teachers were part of your network. Your coworkers were part of your network. Everyone you associate with is part of your network. So, what is a network and how can it help you?

According to Websters a network is: “A usually informally interconnected group or association of persons (as friends or professional colleagues)”. Anyone you associate with is in your network. If you have heard of the 6 degrees of separation (a theory that there are no more that 6 people between you and anyone you might want to communicate with) you might begin to realize the importance of each and every person you know. Just take a look at the numbers, if you know 25 people and each of those people know 25 (625) and they know 25 people (390,625) and they know 25 people (9,765,625) and they know 25 people (244,140,625) people by the time you get to the 6^th degree the number is over 6 billion people. Do you think that someone in that 6 billion people might know where you could find a job or who might need your services or help you find whatever it is you might be looking for?

To access all those people you need to take care of and nurture the relationship with the 25 people in your network. By take care of I mean look out for. Try to help them be successful at what they do. Find opportunities for them, make connections that will help them and be a true value to them. Do it without expecting anything in return and your returns will be 10 fold. See the innate value of each individual you associate with and they will see your value. They will look out for you and before you know it great things, some expected and some unexpected, will come your way.

This posting is just the first in a series that will help you accomplish this.

Look out the next one could be worth millions to you.