[johnfuller]

Networking is seriously important. It will be valuable now and for the far off future. It's the worst thing holding back my buddies at our small town back home. They don't know anyone who is successful and wouldn't have anything to offer a successful person anyways. So, they are stuck in their small ecosystem of the local pub and trading tips on low paying low skilled jobs.

Combine skills, networking and the leverage of reach (through the internet) and you might find yourself in a position where you are wondering what all the fuss is about. There is a ton of work which needs to be done out there, but too few people who have figured out how to change with the times.

Edit: In other words, things may change so much to be unrecognizable in ten years. So, networking is the only thing that you can really count on to always be important.

[Kluny]

I'm still trying to figure out the networking thing. I think this article kind of got it though - worry about friends, not your network. Today I had a really great chat with the director of the co-op program at my college. She's a pretty good professional contact, and has experience running her own business, as well. But I think she'll remember me as a friend after today.

Same with a specialist doctor I see. When I met him, I was 17 and he was a fresh grad on his first week on the job. Now we have a 6 year relationship and we're kind of on equal terms.

I'm trying to think of more people in my life this way - people I previously thought of as unapproachable elders are becoming friends. Hope I'm on the right track.

[PaperclipTaken]

The article is very hyperbolic, and I don't think that the author meant to say that networking is unimportant. I think he was trying to say that your friends are more important for determining your success than your network.

And I agree with that. Your friends, much more than your network, define your outlook on life, your general attitude towards various successes and failures, the things you place the most importance in. If all of your friends are get-out-there-and-do-something people, it will rub off on you, even if not to the same extreme.

Furthermore, it's much easier to do something extreme or different if you have a friend group that wants to do it with you. Starting a business on your own is nearly impossible. Starting a business with a close friend is no cake walk, but now there is motivation. And regardless of what sort of way you try to be successful, friends can pool their networking resources.