Opening Doors and Building Walls
I’ve been reading recently about Gary Hart who tried to be President in the 80′s. He did well but never got past the primaries. Anyway he came from pretty humble beginnings and got to the pinnacle of U.S. politics by, to paraphrase his words, opening doors and building walls.
The way he described his rise was that there seemed to be an endless stream of doors available for him to go through and behind each was a brick he could add to his wall of credentials. A door is an opportunity. A brick is an accomplishment.
Here are some things I woud characterize as doors. a] you go to a networking meeting and meet a very good contact; b] you discover that there’s a terrific course that will be very helpful for you at a local college, c] you see a book in a bookstore that seems to address a topic you want to know more about d] you get a call from a past employer just to say hello.
Here are the bricks you can create that complement the four open doors. a] you do a good follow up with the new good contact; a follow up note, an invitation, a reward for knowing you; b] you take the course including a special project that will look good on your resume and give you a good reason to call some people you don’t know as a networking ploy; c] you read the book, write a paragraph about it and send that paragraph with recommendation to a dozen people who will be interested, all of which strengthens your relationship with these people and d] you invite the past employer out for coffee thereby enhancing the relationship which could have some benefits in the future.
I do an exercise in some workshops to ask people ‘what will their big break be’. They have to create a fantasy big break. Almost always the big break stems from a new or enhanced relationship, that is in Gary Hart’s terms, a door gone thru to develop a brick.
