Making good connections

Connections aren’t made overnight. You’re not going to meet somebody and work with them the next day. Good connections take time, often years to percolate, until something materializes from them.

Too often people show up once and expect the world to open for them, but more often then not it’s people that have sticking power who get the benefit of those connections.

For myself, I keep an eye on people for years before I work with them. Every time I’ve jumped into a business relationship quickly it has failed.

So now, I’m wary, and I promise you most people are like me. I want to work with people I know, like, and trust. People who I’m almost positive will get the work done because I’ve watched them get the work done before.

It’s not easy to make good connections, because it takes a long time and a lot of effort. Showing up is important, but showing up and being impressive is how you get people to want to work with you.

In the beginning, this is very hard, but the longer you stick around the more impressive you become, and the higher level connections you make. If you stick around long enough, suddenly doors open for you, just by surviving. By surviving you show that you can weather a storm, take a punch, and bounce back, all while delivering something amazing.

Almost every connection I’ve ever made took 1-2 years to bear any fruit, and most never did.

The nice thing is, even if it doesn’t bear fruit you get to hang out with a cool human who you like, and make a new friend, which is really the whole point of this whole thing. People want to work with their friends, so if you can befriend a lot of people, and show you produce excellent work, then you’re going to be way ahead of the game.