NETWORK UP WITH YOUR IDOLS AND MODELS

•  Ivan Misner, Ph.D. is the founder of BNI.com, the world’s largest business networking organization termed by CNN as, "The Father of Modern Networking."
• Mr. Misner is regarded as one of the leading business networking experts in the world.
• He demonstrates ways to network up successfully such as;
•  Hanging out where successful people are. Start by assessing where you are and then determine where you can go to “network up.”
• Mr. Misner aimed higher by embracing discomfort and believing that one's discomfort may be a sign that that is the exact person you should be talking to.
• He says that the old adage "It never hurts to ask, right?" is compltely wrong and he never did that when networking with people for the first time.

DO THE WORK

•  Grant Cardone, top sales expert who has built a $500 million real estate empire and New York Times best-selling author of "Be Obsessed or Be Average".
• Mr. Cardone created 10X Growth Con —a large networking event for entrepreneurs— that he says was as a result of his personal quality of bringing like-minded people together.
• He reports that simply attending an event is not going to create a network. One still has to do the work: reach out, be social, and have sales prowess.
• The right event can exponentially expand your network and strengthen your contacts by regular follow-ups and remaining in contact.
• According to Mr. Cardone, it's a wealth to have a large network. Creating a large, valuable network won't take place overnight or very rapidly, but you can speed things up attending the right kind of events.
• Mr. Cardone has a saying that goes, “You can get rich quick, but nobody gets wealthy quick.”

GIVE INSTEAD OF TAKE

•  James Swanwick, an entrepreneur, author and CEO of Swanwick Sleep and the 30-Day No Alcohol Challenge.
• Mr. Swanwick provides as much value as possible to people in his network without asking for anything in return.
• You must earn the right to have a genuine relationship at the start of a new partnership. This could only be achieved by giving an insane amount of value.
• "I’ll cold email heroes of mine suggesting ways they can make more sales. I’ll make introductions to people I know can help them. I’ll share what’s been working in my own business and encourage them to copy it—all while asking for nothing in return. That’s how you get people’s attention."
• Mr Swanwich reports that by doing this, he built a network of highly successful friends and mentors, which in turn helped him build a million-dollar business.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

JIMMY FALLON

Personality Overview

• Jimmy Fallon is a comedian and host of The Tonight Show on NBC.

Overview of Personal Network

• Fallon was an intern at New York alt-weekly. His boss at the time was Peter Iselin who passed his audition tape to Randi Sigel.
• Sigel was an entertainment agent for SNL shows and booked Fallon for two SNL auditions. Beyond his talent, Sigel was impressed by Fallon's knowledge of the comedy industry and enthusiasm that she took the leap and used her connections to get him an opening at SNL.
• When Fallon joined SNL in 1998, he sought to build a relationship with the show's creator, Lorne Micheals. The show's producer, Marci Klein, advised him to seek attendance at Micheal's exclusive after-parties held after each show.
• When he began attending the exclusive SNL after-parties, Fallon began engaging with Micheals and built a fast friendship. Micheals was instrumental in convincing Fallon to take up Conan O'Brien's vacated seat on NBC's "Late Night." At this time, Fallon had quit SNL five years before pursuing a movie career that did not fan out.
• O'Brien had a short stint as the host of the Late Night show that led to the return of its former host, Jay Leno. During his time as the late-night host before the O'Brien short stint, Fallon used to seek advice from Leno. In these conversations, Leno gained respected of Fallon as an open and respectful person.

Success of networking

• In 2014, Jimmy Fallon got the job to host the Late Night show on NBC from the recommendations of Jay Leno and Lorne Micheals.
• Jimmy Fallon has been an incredible success with each show attracting 4 million viewers each night while attracting a higher share of the 18-49 demographic than Jay Leno.

RYAN GRAVES

Personality Overview

• Ryan Graves is the former CEO and SVP of Global Operations at Uber

Overview of Personal Network

• Ryan Graves was struggling with his startup in 2010. At the time, hew was recently engaged and working for General Electric Healthcare in Chicago.
• Soon after, he got a gig as an intern at Four Square business development team lead by Tristan Walker. However, he did not receive a permanent position after working at the company for three months.
• He spotted a tweet by Travis Kalanick that he was looking for a "business development & product badass." Kalanick was respected in Silicon Valley and had just sold his company Red Swoosh for $19 million. 

Success of Networking

• Graves responded to the tweet by providing his email address. Kalanick responded by emailing Graves that led to them meeting and deciding to work together on Kalanick's startup, Uber.
• Graves became the CEO of the startup for one year as it took off before Kalanick took over the role. He was subsequently appointed the SVP of Global Operations.
• In 2017, he resigned from Uber shortly after Kalanick had resigned. He serves on the board of Uber and holds 2% of the company's shares.
• His tweet response to Kalanick is touted as the most expensive tweet as it made Graves a billionaire. Currently, he is worth $1.5 billion. 

SUCCESS IN LIFE

• Success attained in the life of an individual can have many meanings based on the personal objective and goal of the person. Success can relate to an entire project or be limited to one component within that project or task. One can achieve success in the workplace or one's personal life.
• According to people who are considered successful in society, such as Warren Buffet, Mark Cuban, Richard Branson, success in life means-happiness, money and power, competing with yourself/self-control, being surrounded by loving people, enjoying one's work, making an impact on society, having a healthier life, and so on.
• Highly successful people have a habit of spending time with people who inspire them. According to Tom Corley, "You are only as successful as those you frequently associate with" and it is important to have highly-motivated people in one's personal network to be successful.

STATISTICS/INSIGHTS ON PERSONAL NETWORKS AND SUCCESS

• A study published in the Public Library of Science Journal by the University of Notre Dame highlights that a social network structure provides significant improvement in predicting one’s health and well-being compared to other health equipment and that social circles influence the well-being and health of a person.
• Also, combined with the individual's social network information, health and wellness predictions for an individual achieved 65% improvement when predicting happiness, 54% improvement when predicting one’s self-assessed health, 55% improvement when predicting positive attitude, and 38% improvement when predicting success. This shows that the personal network of an individual does influence these factors in his life.

• Self-control and being disciplined in life are important parameters for achieving the goals an individual sets for themselves. Having low self-control is connected to diverse difficulties such as "academic underachievement, an unhealthy lifestyle, procrastination and problems with the law."
• To attain self-discipline and achieve success, one's personal network, consisting of family, friends and loved ones, can help and provide support because they are able to help during vulnerable times when an individual shows their "dark" side, they actually love, trust and relate to them more and can help overcome the phase in a more positive manner.

• A survey report by LinkedIn shows that approximately 85% of open positions in organizations are filled through personal networking. If a person is seeking a good job, it is recommended to invest time into building one's network rather than invest it applying randomly online.
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and Yale University report that 70% of all jobs are found through networking and only 15% are filled through job boards as people prefer to do business and work with individuals they know and like.

• According to a research published in Psychological Science, a journal from the Association for Psychological Science, individuals who implemented well-being strategies that involved others were more fulfilled with life after a year than those who did not. The level of fulfillment of the latter group remained, on average, the same.
• The research found that participants who were involved in their personal network or social circle with activities such as "helping others," spending more time with family and spending more time with friends showed increased life satisfaction whereas those who reported nonsocial strategies showed relatively constant levels.

Research Strategy