This week I made new connections with an IT data management specialist, a dentist and a burlesque dancer. Quite a diverse group huh?
The value of introductions, building a network of connections and subsequent relationships were highlighted for me today… having commented on LinkedIn on a post from Italy, I tweeted something related from London. Within 30 minutes I had received responses from the US, Italy and Israel. The tweet was a fairly innocuous one, but apparently it caught the attention of people around the world that not only follow me, but whom I’ve met in person or worked with.
I guess it’s testament to the value of good digital and personal interaction
Earlier this afternoon, I had a coffee with an architect friend and business contact Dr Eitan Karol from South Africa – I’ve known him for over 10 years and he’s in town for business. He checked to see if I had time for a coffee… of course I did! He contacted me through LinkedIn as he realised my Arup email address bounced… the result was a great chat in a rooftop cafe bar looking over the London skyline. I’ll be meeting with him for a glass of wine at sundown when I’m in Cape Town at the end of February.
Even as I’m writing this sitting in the Aviary bar at the Montcalm Hotel on Finsbury Square waiting for an ex-colleague to join me, my buddy Mark Taylor just checked-in using ‘Swarm’ at Moorgate tube station… all it takes is a phone call from me “bloody hell, you’re quick” is his first response, followed by “I’ll check Swarm to find out where you are” and he’s on his way here to join me. Work chat ensues and my ex-colleague joins us; before you know it each of their networks have expanded. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I’m a #SuperConnector but it’s a start!
Modern business (or life too) works this way. Technology allows serendipity to be extended whereby chance meetings aren’t really left to chance – you put yourself in a certain position politically, emotionally and physically such that when others do the same, the frequency of ‘chance’ meetings is increased. It follows then, that you meet your connections more often, share stories about work, life, families and that particularly nice bottle of red you had (and reviewed on Vivino)- before you know it, you’ve moved from strangers to colleagues, to friends.
Oh you have such good luck, people say…
Nonsense! I’ve said to many people over the years that I don’t believe in good luck… I believe in bad luck as most bad things that happen tend to be out of your control. Good luck however is pretty much under your control… you can choose to educate yourself, choose to put yourself in a particular place, choose to live healthily, choose to tell the truth over hiding from it. Everything we do puts us in a certain position where we are influenced in some way by our old or new connections.
I think what I’m saying here is that if you choose to put yourself out there do it with integrity and make efforts to be another person’s good luck. And if you do, technology is a great enabler for extending your circle of influence in a human way.
you can be another person’s ‘good luck’…
However you choose to communicate in life, whatever methods, platforms or apps you use, make the most of them, be sincere and always try to leave a positive impression.
C
The CASE for BIM 