Build Your Networks

. . . find mentors and other key advisers

The people we associate with, personally and professionally, become part of our network. Each of us has a unique set of friends and associates. Our networks can either help us advance or hold us back. When our networks expand, our careers build. When our networks stagnate, our careers go on hold. In either case, networking has the potential to greatly determine how much opportunity we encounter.

Building our networks involves meeting as many people as we can. This is easier in sales careers than others, and as a result, sales industries create more millionaires than other professions. Regardless of our career choice, we have many opportunities for creating and expanding our networks.

Aside from going the extra mile at work (which helps influence networks positively), we can become involved in school functions with our children, corporate sports teams, community associations, chambers of commerce, or adult education courses. There are many more options, but remember - it's up to each individual to follow through on them. You are the only person who can build your network.

Although each person's network is unique, everyone's network would benefit from the addition of a few key advisers. First and foremost are good mentors - people we can trust and talk to openly. Mentors can save us much time in the world of trial and error.

Two additional advisers are a good lawyer and a good accountant, especially if we are self-employed, but even if we are not. If we are determined to proceed on the path to success, we will without doubt need accounting and legal advice at some point - whether we're buying a house, doing our taxes, or closing a deal on a corporate merger. As our wealth builds, good accountants and lawyers become more important.

The last key adviser is a good psychologist. There are many obstacles on the path to success - career setbacks, emotional struggles, and self-doubt to name a few. A psychologist can help us deal with complicated emotional processes during these difficult periods.

Psychologists are expensive, however, so if funds are unavailable, we can seek a life process mentor - a compassionate friend whom we trust enough to share the intimate details of our life. Typically, this is someone we respect and admire, and he or she will have experienced the same situation or issue we are experiencing in our life.

For successful people, the process of building networks continually shifts. When I was deciding to move my cellular phone business to a larger store, I hired one of my mentors as a consultant to help me complete a business plan and hire sales people. He coached me on what to say to the bank in order to get financing and on how to interview prospective personnel. In essence, he coached me on making decisions, like he always had as a mentor.

During this period, the relationship was the same but intensified because I was paying him for a specific purpose. Sometimes a mentor steps into a consulting role and offers more specific advice.

For successful people the process of building networks seldom stops. They understand that the more people they know, the more advice they will receive. If they can think of two or three people they'd like to adopt as mentors, they adopt them.

We can do the same. We do not have to accept everything our mentor, accountant, lawyer or psychologist says as the absolute truth, but we can listen and decide what is best for our situation. The more opinions we collect from people we trust, the more options we become aware of, and the easier it becomes to make decisions. We can save ourselves a great deal of time and hardship by listening to capable people whom we trust to have our best interests in mind.

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