REVIEW: "Never Eat Alone and Other Networking Rules", Keith Ferrazzi

The coolest bigwigs: ministers, governors, deputies - they are all someone's relatives, friends at the university or neighbors in their summer cottage. You can study at a university for a long time, then work just as hard without sparing yourself. Just one call from the RIGHT person will move you much faster. Connections are everything. But how to make these very connections? You will learn about this from the book "Never Eat Alone and Other Rules of Networking".

What is this book about?

The author tells us his story, spicing it up with incidents from the lives of his acquaintances. About how the establishment of connections changed the fate of people. Like a chance meeting at a conference or a business card lent on time can turn someone's life 180 degrees. Or even the fate of all mankind. And this is not an exaggeration - after all, most of Keith's stories are associated with the largest figures in the United States - presidential candidates like Hillary Clinton or wealthy people like Bill Gates.

I realized that intelligence, talent and origin are not the most important thing in life. You can't do anything alone. Kate Ferrazzi

Most of the book consists of the "mechanics" of establishing acquaintances and the subsequent "work" with them. We will learn about who, when and where to get acquainted, which phrases and reasons for dating will work better, and which ones will alienate a person from us. This is especially important when we want to meet a very famous person who is already fed up with attention. Keith wrote about dating such people separately.

But if you think that this book is about some kind of manipulation and tricks, about something like network marketing, then you are wrong.

Quite the opposite is true.

Throughout the book, the author calls for the brightest feelings: mutual assistance, mutual cooperation and empathy. Do not "milk" your contacts, but exchange mutual services. All this rhetoric reminded me very much of Stephen Covey with his seven principles. Very, very reminded. Although the name of Covey is not mentioned in the book. But the name of another famous American, Dale Carnegie, is repeatedly mentioned there. It can be seen that the author was inspired precisely by his books at the beginning of his journey.

Overall, and I would like to emphasize this, Kate brings to us the most real philosophy of life. Philosophy of communication and mutual assistance.

In fact, he built on this his entire glorious career. And all my life.

… when I do this, the line between professional and personal life loses all meaning. Kate Ferrazzi

Who will benefit from this book?

First of all, "salesmen" of all stripes, networkers, public relations specialists, and so on.

It will also be useful for people working for the government or in large corporations. I remember David D'Alessandro's phrase: "Large corporations are irrational." This means that a career in large corporations rarely depends on the competence of a person. But from his connections - directly.

If, again, remember the top officials, then you probably noticed how quickly some dismissed official finds a job. Today he is the deputy minister, tomorrow - the ambassador to France, the day after tomorrow - the vice-president of the state corporation.

You can be fired, you can lose money, property, but if you still have connections, it means that nothing is lost.

… 56% of those surveyed found a job thanks to their personal connections … Keith Ferrazzi

In general, I think the book will be useful to everyone. For example, I have learned many lessons for myself. And immediately he began to introduce them into his life. By the way, this is a sure sign that the book is a success.

About format

The book is big. I read it for a long time. In addition, here and there I had to think.

But it is easy to read. The book is filled with examples from life, and the author does not hesitate to give names, company names and dates. And since most of the stories feature the most famous people, it is unlikely that Keith came up with something on his own.

In general, one can feel a colossal experience. The person knows what he is writing about. It can be seen that the book was not written in order to earn another million dollars. Rather, the author wanted to leave some kind of legacy, he wanted to tell his descendants about his work in life.

Summarizing

Should I read a book? Necessarily.

I would like to call this book a real "bible of networking", but considering that I have read only a couple of books on this topic, I will refrain. I'd rather ask the readers of Lifehacker: what books from the field of networking would you recommend?

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