The Daily Dinar

The Simple Dollar, one of the best personal finance sites on the internet, reviews a new book by Keith Ferrazzi called Never Eat Alone.

The word networking has a very negative perception for most people; they imagine some guy shaking their hand, smiling, and marking them down in a Rolodex somewhere as merely another asset to tap someday. While there are people out there that match this mold, the truth is that actual relationships with people are a big key to success, and it’s also true that most people simply aren’t very good at quickly building mutually beneficial relationships with others. They either don’t have the social skills, see it as being vampiric and cold, or simply don’t see the larger benefit.

Never Eat Alone is a guide to networking in a socially healthy and mutually beneficial way, although it avoids the word “networking” on the cover (instead using the subtitle “And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time”). The approach here isn’t shaking everyone’s hand in the room, grabbing business cards, and jamming them into an overstuffed Rolodex; instead, it’s a much more humane approach, one that actually appealed to me even though that picture of the shifty networker above really turns me off.

They summarise the key points in each chapter. It’s worth a quick read even if you don’t buy the book as the suggestions apply across a broad range of social contexts.