I’m reorganizing my Obsidian notes a bit, specifically the notes that correspond with ideas to write/YouTube about and came across one from Barking Up the Wrong Tree about networking. The author is talking about “non-sleazy” network building and specifically highlights rekindling old relationships instead of trying to manufacture a relationship out of nothing with cold contacts1.
A year ago I highlighted this because it seemed like a good idea to reach back out to my network, but after trying it a bunch last year I was reminded that there was a reason I no longer interacted with some people, our careers had grown apart and we didn’t come across each other anymore. The act of reaching out to try and rekindle the relationship was just as manufactured as a cold email or networking event, but it was also cloaked in “friendship” which made it feel even worse to me.
Out of the few dozen people I tried to reach back out to none of them are a current connection because we had drifted apart for reasons that are still true and if I’m the only one putting any effort into the relationship (business or personal) it’s not going to happen.
I’m simply no longer interested in this type of productivity book either so reading my idea to write more (in a positive sense) about this idea made my laugh at the person I was a year ago.
- Barking up the wrong tree Loc 2652 ↩︎