Networking: finding the common interest By: Yu-kai Chou
Under: Life Coaching, Networking, UndergraduateNetworking and building relationships with people is one of the most essential things one needs to do to become successful. When you want to contact someone and meet up(newly met professional or old friend), you want to find a common interest to make the meeting pleasant and enjoyable for both. Maybe you both like golf. Maybe you would both like to visit a museum. But what if you don’t know what that person likes? In that case, there is a pretty universal common interest: food. Statistics show that most people deal with some sort of food one time or another in their lives. It also happens that most people like food. So it’s pretty safe to invite this person to a good food place when you don’t know enough about him/her. If the food is good, timing is possible, and maybe you’ll be treating them (and it’s worth it), most people wouldn’t mind getting some food and talking to you.
When you are talking to a new professional, make sure you don’t put too much focus on his or her professional information and forget about the personal things in his/her life. It doesn’t matter if they’re highly successful people, they’re still people, and until you show that you care about them as real people instead of their titles, you will have a hard time building a true relationship.
In regards to conversations, if you know the person likes something that you don’t, do not lie and
pretend you like it. You’ll lose any sense of credibility very soon. You could reveal that you do not know much about that topic but is interested to learn about it. That’s a good way to have a good conversation on something without needing much knowledge to it. Most people like explaining and teaching things they are passionate about, as long as you can keep yourself from drooling. However, besides having an open mind to learn, being genuinely concerned about the other person often helps in being more interested towards subjects that he/she is passionate about.
If you know what makes people smile, your day will turn out much better.
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July 3rd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Two part reason for this note…
1) I’ve been reading through your posts and am really enjoying your insights. Thanks for taking the time to keep up the blog!
2) Would you be interested in receiving a copy of “The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work,” a newly released book by Jon Gordon? I think you’d enjoy the premise of the book and some of the stats that Jon speaks to… such as how negativity costs companies 250-300 billion a year, according to Gallup. How various surveys say that 70-80% of people hate their jobs. And how more people die Monday morning at 9am than any other time. It’s really a book about developing positive solutions.
I work with Jon and since you are a thought leader whom I respect I’d love to get your feedback about dealing with negativity in the workplace and possibly introduce you and Jon to each other. You can check out more about the book and watch few short promo videos we’ve made by going to http://www.NoComplainingRule.com. There’s a part in the first one where the boss head butts an employee for complaining. It’s hilarious!
Thanks and please let me know if you’d like to check out the book.
July 8th, 2008 at 4:11 am
This is an efficient website in order to get a jump start into the real world. I found a lot of information on different types of companies and categories based upon my major and self-interest. I look forward to seeing fdcareer.com expand later on throughout the years as more and more people are introduced to it.