Here is an article from the HarvardBusiness Review Blog that is heartening in a “pay-it-forward” kind of way AND is spot-on in its insights into the simple skills that go into professional networking and relationship building.
Blanche Du Bois (of A Streetcar Names Desire fame) is again
proved right by believing in the “kindness of strangers”!
I recently received an e-mail sent
to my business address that began with the salutation "Dear Ms.
Anne," — the kind of greeting that suggested that the rest of the note
would offer me riches from some recently deceased Estonian cousin I didn't know
I had. It continued, "I know you have no idea who I am, however, I will
try to keep this as short and to the point as possible" — words destined
to cause a further sinking feeling about what was to come. But in the seconds I
skimmed the note, a few words jumped out at me and I was intrigued. In three
short paragraphs, Zanele Mutepfa, a junior at Portland State University in
Oregon, told me that she was an immigrant Zimbabwean-born orphan and youth
advocate who aspired to be a television talk show host. With a bravado that might
have been off-putting, she said, "I assure you, my dynamic life story will
one day hit headlines...but most importantly change lives, it just needs to be
shared with the perfect person." She was coming to New York City — might I
have time to meet with her?
I had moved from the hinterlands to
New York myself, 35 years ago, with virtually no professional contacts, so when
she closed her note by saying, "Some may think one of the strangest things
to do is believe in a stranger, but if not one stranger believed in us, once
upon a time, where would we all be today?... someone did it for you."
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