Never Eat Alone

Never Eat Alone is a modern classic, which explains the art of networking and gives you actionable advice on how you can harness the power of good relationships and become a good networker to build a career you love.

There’s a great analogy in the book to describe how relationships actually work, which is a good thing to know before you start building them. Keith says they’re not like cake, which disappears over time, because it gets smaller with every slice you take.

Relationships have a lot more in common with muscles. The more you use them, the stronger they get, because they grow each time you exercise them.

But just like your muscles, building relationships takes time. If you go to the gym for the short-term investment of working out once until you collapse, and then expect to look like Arnold the next day, you’re in for a disappointment. Instead, constant generosity and loyalty will get you where you want to go. Sticking with the muscle example, if you show up to the gym twice a week for a year and are generous with how you treat your muscles (by giving them lots of breaks and eating well), you’ll reap the rewards of a good body.

For your relationships, this means not giving up on your co-workers once they’ve helped you with that PowerPoint issue you’ve encountered, and loyally repaying the favor, for example by generously listening to them for half an hour, if they tell you about their marital problems.

In a nutshell, if you want to be a good networker, never ask “How can others help me?”. Rather, always ask “How can I help others?” and you’ll do just fine.

There’s a really cool quote about the principle of starting early. “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.” (here’s a cool pic of it on my Instagram) Just like you can’t buy safety vests when your ship is already sinking, you have to build your network long before you need it. If you build a basis of understanding and trust with someone, you can sure count on their help when you eventually face a problem you can’t solve alone. Nobody likes a leech, who only comes to you when they need your help. Everyone wants to feel respected and valued. A good networker builds relationships like a marathon runner, not a sprinter. For example, when he was only 22 years old, Bill Clinton started writing down the names of everyone he’d met that day every evening, in order to remember them better. You can bet he called some of those people when he was campaigning to be…