Never Eat Alone, Expanded and Updated: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time

by Keith Ferrazzi

generosity in relationships, above all; audacity; social arbitrage; blending the personal and professional; connecting through passions; giving back; having fun.

I was, instead, connecting—sharing my knowledge and resources, time and energy, friends and associates, and empathy and compassion in a continual effort to provide value to others, while coincidentally increasing my own.

And because today’s primary currency is information, a wide-reaching network is one of the surest ways to become and remain thought leaders of our respective fields.

Put this into essay

The more people you help, the more help you’ll have and the more help you’ll have helping others. It’s the same phenomenon that you see propelling the success of the top social networking sites.

Having the best information at the point of need requires excellence in collaboration, co-creation, communication—the engineering of relationships and the networks through which they get work done.

I’m not suggesting therapy will make you a better people person, but it might help you address your own fears and social anxieties in a more productive way. Many studies funded by the National Institute of Mental Health report a high success rate using counseling to alleviate the conditions that normally inhibit a shy person.

Keep up with current events. Cultivate some niche interest. A single narrow specialty (cooking, golf, gardening)

I was reminded of what Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I learn of him.” Everyone had something to teach him. This

It’s better to be rough around the edges than polished into a bland sheen.

Accountability is about more than living up to promises and holding others to the same. It’s also about taking up a bold position and staying the course in the face of criticism or fear.

“Everyone sees what you appear to be,” observed Machiavelli, “few really know what you are.”

Learning is best achieved through relationships—having the right conversations with the right people in the right context—and collaborative action.