The fundamental element that defines the quality of your life is the people you surround yourself with, the mutual value and opportunities that the relationship brings; the conversations, mutual influence and the engagements you have with them. Nigeria runs on connections and networking. Who you know is a networking game only a few really play right.
There is a stunning research from the sociologist Mark Granovetter, whose classic 1974 study: Getting a Job. He surveyed 282 workers and business people in relation to how they got their jobs and a current business contract. What he found was that 56% got jobs through a personal connection. Of those connections, most were weak ties. Only 16.7% saw the contact often, 55.6% saw them occasionally, and 28% saw them rarely. This should be weird. But you actually can get too close to people or someone to be thought of when a deal comes to the table.
In a world that can’t stop talking and networking, it seems like everyone should always be out there. Well, basic economics 101 shows that a degree of scarcity creates value. This is valid even for human relationships in circles, and brands in the marketplace. We can clearly be too in people’s face with our brand, product and self-till it loses value. The relationship between popularity and value is not linear. Let me break it down. Imagine value over popularity as a graph. It’s never linear but polynomial, say cubic differentiated into quadratic.
Finding the minimax and maximum of the curve, is like finding what point Diminishing Return hits the X and Y variables of Productivity Curve in economics. You can actually represent it in a graph, (the curve will be like the inverted U shape curve, like the classic curve of the Law of Diminishing Return). Your role as a CEO is to supply some level of selective popularity around what truly matters and not overstretching it. You can be too in a person’s face that they forget that you’re there. It’s a delicate rise though and your role is to find at just what point is best before a negative turn in the graph
We generally think the closer to those up there, the more they’d help us, right?
Well, wrong!
This summarizes a very personal central ideology I have always had and shared. Be friendly but have few friends. You don’t have to attend every party you are invited to. Don’t put your product on every shelf available, know your market. Even in your market, don’t oversupply so the price doesn’t drop. This is a metaphor for human relationships. Networking is great and social intelligence is key. But don’t over-network or make yourself overly available. As a businessman, being a connector is just enough.
