I Can't Take My Sweet A** Time To Build Connections

Okay so don't. (but you'll be sorry....)

I recently ran across a peculiar chap who challenged me that my way of connecting had no place in business.  To paraphrase he said, "Your way is soft.  It takes too much time and is way too slow.  It doesn't yield me the business results I need.  It's perfect if I am looking for a friend but I'm not.  I need business now and taking my sweet a** time building connections "the right way" simply doesn't work in the business world. I want success now!" 

He said actually a lot more than that but I won't bore with you the litany of insults he hurled my direction. 

Here's the deal, he's right!

What? I hear you exclaim.  Say it isn't so.

It's so.

He's right on all levels.

I hear your screams of Nooooo!!! (like Luke Skywalker after he found out Darth Vadar was his father).

Relax, I'm not perpetuating a fraud here.  I haven't asked you to buy my book, come see me speak or tune into my frequent thoughts and pontifications here on the BLOG because I was pulling a fast one on you.  I promise.  So step away from the edge it's alright.

Everything he said to me is exactly right......FOR HIM. And perhaps maybe for others.  I don't know because I can't speak for them.  For him building connections or "networking" as many like to call it is about collecting business cards, identifying prospects and hopefully if they're lucky taking them down like a wounded gazelle on the African plains.  It's a strategy.  It's a numbers game.  It's a process that has clearly worked for him over the years and not even the Ripple Man is going to change his mind as to why it doesn't work...at least not long-term.

Rippling is a process not a trick or strategy to get you more business quicker.  It isn't some pie in the sky method that helps you identify who's a likely victim, errrr potential customer or not.  It's a way of life that has a whole different goal in mind.  Ripple is about playing for a lifetime of opportunity not just one hit wonders.

Guys like him and those so called networking experts live and breath by the number of business cards they collect at the end of the night.  They pride themselves on having hundreds of contacts on LinkedIn or other social networks.  They hunt and peck until they find those who succumb to their way of doing business and cry "Uncle!" He I'm not criticizing it clearly works for them...."in the moment."

In all reality you often find those people have to prostitute themselves at networking events or other related venues over and over again because their one hit wonders (those poor helpless Gazelles) will never turn into repeat business. Why?  Because they never took the time to really build a real connection let alone a real relationship with them.  They simply got them to sign on the line that was dotted and moved on pursuing their next prey.

That my friends is where Rippling and connecting my way is different than the traditional hunt and kill because I need business (or a job, or a date, or a fill in the blank) now approach that so many people take.

If done right Rippling is like a hot slot machine of opportunity and the relationships you've taken the time to build correctly will pay off over and over again.  Not just in business but in the personal relationships, the close friendship that develop and the tremendous doors of opportunity that continually open to you over and over again.

So when the old chap challenged me that he couldn't take his sweet ass time to build connections because he needed business now, I simply smiled and walked away.  You see arguing with a guy who so clearly is right does nothing but annoy you both.  I'll just take my Ripple elsewhere and to people who will get it.

Ripple On!!!




Photo/Image credit: Some guy I can't pronounce his name but here's a link to his Tumbler profile.