Power Networking

Last Tuesday, June 22nd, my fellow program participants and I listened to a lecture from a famous 'power networker'. It was part speech, part interactive. The interactive activity was the famous ball of yarn (in our specific case it was a ball of ribbon) exercise. For those of you unfamiliar with the exercise, this is when one person begins by stating personal facts, and then another person stands when they share a personal fact with the person speaking. The person speaking then throws a ball of yarn/ribbon/string to the person who has stood. Then that person (the one who stood up) begins to state personal facts about themselves until someone else stands up. The process repeats until all in the room are standing and are holding a piece of yarn/string/ribbon. Some of the things this speaker said were things I had heard before in high school during the college admissions process. Other parts of the talk were familiar, but phrased in new ways. There were other things which she (the speaker) said that I was unfamiliar with. For example, according to her a first impression is made in seven seconds or less and it takes over two hours to undo a negative first impression. From my personal experiences, that is something I am willing to believe.

One of the things this speaker said that I am having an issue with is that one's network is equal to one's net-worth. While the people that one surrounds oneself with can be influential, a part of that bucks against my 'one can pull oneself up by one's own boot strings' mentality. I know that the myth of the self made or truly self sufficient person is just that, a myth. However, it is one of those myths that I have held onto. Why am I so attached to this myth in particular? I'm not sure I can say. I think its just one of the things that I heard so much as a child. While I know that the myth is often times exaggerated and has little to no 'real' place in the history books, that sense of the self made or self-sufficient individual is at heart one of the core American myths. Acknowledging that a myth is a myth is the first part of separating oneself from it, but the myth that one can be truly self sufficient is (for me at least) still an interesting concept.

Something the speaker said that I do agree with is that one should be cautious with one puts out on the internet. Even with the best firewalls and protections, it is becoming easier and easier to find people. Fortunately, when I google myself I am still very much a non-entity. While that is one measure of privacy, I know that the sort of search I do for myself is nothing compared to what potential employers might look for. What we put out on the internet can and often does have a way of finding its way back to us. Part of why I have been as slow updating this blog as I have been is that I often debate for long times after I finish writing potential posts before I decide whether or not to press the 'publish post' icon. Most of the time, I decide not to and scrap a post. I know I have said somethings here and elsewhere on the internet that may well find there way back to me some day. However, all the things I have said (at least on this blog) are things I am willing to stand behind. That all said, maybe I'll ask one of my friends who is more technology literate than I am to help find a way to make me less visible in the future.