The passing of George Carlin got me to thinking about one of my favorite routines that he did about people and our stuff. Business networking, when it comes right down to it, is really just all about our stuff.
We are business owners and we have stuff that we want to sell, so we go out and we meet people who we hope will need our stuff. Of course, they may or may not need our stuff. This we don’t know. To find out, we have to get to know these people and we need to get to know their stuff.
Now, some people you do want to get to know better and sometimes you find out that you like them and will hang out with them even if they don’t buy your stuff. Amazingly, you often end up buying their stuff. And, the really cool part is when you tell other people about their stuff and they tell other people about your stuff. It becomes the mutual stuff admiration society. Which is really great stuff!
When it comes to business networking, I think it’s a really good idea to remember that nothing happens without other people. Any break you have ever gotten, came from another person. Every tip you have received came from another person. Any hand up, hand out, or pat on the back … all of that stuff came from another person. And that when you give good stuff, you get good stuff in return. More people will pay attention to you and your stuff when you show them first that you are interested in and have a healthy respect for their stuff.
George Carlin was a really great thought provoker. He made me think. He made me laugh. Sometimes he shocked me. Mostly he entertained me with new ways of looking at things. He had such a way of taking everyday things that we say and pulling them apart to look at the words and point out how it sometimes just did not make sense. I still cannot get on a plane without hearing him say, “to hell with getting on the plane, you can get on the plane, I’m getting IN the plane.”
It’s kind of weird to think that George will no longer entertain us with new stuff on our stuff … whatever that stuff might be. And, it’s good to know that we can simply go to You Tube where his stuff will live on and on and on. To check out George’s riff on stuff visit this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvgN5gCuLac