Damien Grant: Create your own luck

Masterminding meetings between people may prove fruitful for all parties involved. Photo / Thinkstock

My favourite book this year (I only read two but it was still a hard choice) was The Black Swan by Nassim Taleb.

Taleb describes a black swan as a significant unexpected random event that has a large impact. The terrorist attacks in 2001 were a perfect example.

The question is, how do we best position ourselves to benefit from or minimise the negative effects of such events?

Taleb did this by spending the last decade shorting stocks and waiting for a negative black swan to hit the markets, which it did for him, helpfully, in 2007.

For most of us running small businesses, there are lots of little ugly black cygnets that blight our path to riches but there are also many random positive events. The most obvious are new commercial contacts: people we meet and form connections with who provide us with ideas, sales or introductions we could not access ourselves.

To snare a positive black swan we need to cast our net wide, and the best way to cast a wide net is to network.

Most New Zealand business people think networking involves turning up and talking about themselves. This is not networking - this is being a bore.

True networking involves adding value to others, which is done most easily by connecting people to each other. You do this for their benefit and not yours, and most such favours will go unrewarded - but not all.

This is why most of us do not network. It is hard and initially unrewarding. Talking about how clever you are is much more satisfying.

The best local book on successful networking is by Sarah Lochead-MacMillian from the SLM group (this would be the second book) called The Naked Networker.

Lochead-MacMillian's thesis is that successful networkers are those who become connectors, linking people and opportunities and placing themselves at the centre of things effectively.

If you persist in following her prescriptions, two things will happen. Not might. Will.

Some people will realise your value to them and make a token effort to return the favour. This is useful but the real benefit is in developing a dedicated group of advocates. They talk about you to others, open doors and create opportunities.

Somewhere in the city is a black swan with your name on it. You will not find this swan sitting in your office. You may find it by getting out and networking, but even if you do not stumble across a large opportunity (or manage to avoid a large risk) you will make contacts, gain leads and develop your network.

Next time you are at an event, network. Ask the person what they do and ask yourself who you can introduce that person to. Most importantly, do not tell us how clever you are.

damien@waterstone.co.nz