Never Eat Alone

"Never Eat Alone", By Keith Farrazzi
Do you lead a connected life, Keith Farrazzi asks. Keith states that the value of our lives is measured in the number and quality of connections we have to others and the degree to which we positively affect our friends, colleagues, family and the world. To achieve a fulfilling life, we much challenge ourselves to reach out to people in reciprocal relationships (mentee/mentor, friendship, peer) whereby one offers to the other assistance and value before asking for the same in return.

To reach out and establish bonds with others, you must (1) share of yourself and provide valuable content. Being interesting means having interests and pursuing them, and sharing them with others. Farrazzi describes it as thinking of yourself as a brand – understanding what the brand stands, crafting it to be true to yourself and effective and marketing that brand successfully through a sprectrum of media and interactions. (2) Be humble and appreciative of help. Always look to help others – you will only achieve your goals if you first have helped everyone around you achieve theirs, (3) Reach out to new people and incorporate them into your life and goals. For each goal in business, social or life, ask yourself who could be helpful and create a strategy and dedication to meeting and helping those people and bringing them into your social network (4) Respond to the things the people in your network, or those you are bringing into your network, really care about – summarized by Michael Milken as “Health, Wealth and Children”. Helping in any of these areas can quickly help you create strong bonds with people. (5) Don’t keep score – it’s not a zero-sum game. Helping others is a satisfying, pie-growing activity.

Keith gives stories about his fabulous intimate dinners parties that he crafts as well as techniques on optimizing the use of conferences, how to engage in small talk, appropriate methods of follow-up (follow-up, follow-up!), and other bare-bones networking techniques

But what pervades his book is the meaningfulness of his own story. He doesn’t really tell you about networking as much as he shows you about networking. In one anecdote, he tells of his successful stint as Chief Marketing Officer at Ya Ya (an advergaming company). Through networking strategically, he was able to form meaningful connections with the power-brokers of the media, gaming and entertainment fields. It was these connections that allowed the company to move from being the industry underdog to leader in a few short years.

And through Keith’s stories, it becomes even more apparent that what the reader responds to is the “brand” and “story” of Keith. A rags to riches, underdog to victor story that is inspiring to me to “get out there”, make a plan and start creating a truly connected life.