You Can’t Grow Unless You Show

As memorable as you are, you and your fellow 21st century earthlings live in an era when the constant bombardment of information makes it impossible to keep anything “top of mind” for very long. Here’s an example: Assuming you read it, can you remember the subject of my last blog? How about the one before that? Let’s face it, our short term memory is overcrowded.

My business development strategy is a combination of blogging (obviously), public speaking, and networking (and luck). My least favorite of the mix is networking. It’s time-consuming, its results are unreliable, and it often feels like a bad blind date. I have, on several occasions, considered eliminating it from my life altogether. Certainly there have been days when, on my way to a networking lunch, I have thought to myself, “I wish I could just cancel.” Ironically, it’s usually those meetings that are the most productive. They remind me that 90% of success is just showing up. After all, I can’t expect to be in the right place at the right time if I don’t show up in the first place.

So, to those of you who are tired of networking; who miss the good old days when people didn’t constantly need to be reminded that you’re still open for business; who wish that being memorable meant being remembered—I urge you to consider that life is a contact sport. Get in front of the key people in your network and stay in front of them. Don’t expect them to find you on LinkedIn. Don’t expect them to keep you in mind. There’s a good chance they won’t. Keep showing up, in spite of the implied tedium, and expect to be pleasantly surprised.

Authored by David Ackert