THE HARSH REALITY OF LIFE

The harsh reality of life is that you live in a fishbowl and all of your faults will be known by everyone so develop a tough skin. This is not meant to be a downer post but just a reality check for the naive individauls of the world who need a wake-up call. I have personally been blessed with thousands of wonderful connections who I have enjoyed interacting with throughout my life.

The reality though is that I have very few "really" good friends and they know who they are because I express that to them on a regular basis. What people need to understand is that most people, even the one's you think are your friends will stab you in the back and run the other way when times get tough.

Unfortunately we live in a world where, when the truth is told people look out for themselves and when push comes to shove frienship is thrown out the window. If there is a choice of cutting a friend, collegue, teammate at the expense of self preservation or accolades it will be as easy as 1, 2, 3 for that person. We unfortunately still do not live in a world where everyone is treated equal. Those that complain the most, yell the loudest and sit in the expensive seats win most of the battles. There are many wonderful individuals in this world who do give of their time, talent and resources freely and thank god for them. We need more people like them to balance out the very competitive and selfish world we live in today. Please acknowledge and thank those individuals when you see them because what they do is so incredibly important to the soul of the world we live in.

The reality of our world is that we live in a "you scratch my back, I will scratch your back society". Way too many people do something expecting something in return and that is unfortunate. There is no greater sense of fulfillment than to do something strictly out of kindness with no expectation of even a "thank you".

A network can involve 1,000's of individuals and how this all relates to my blog on networking is this:

Manage your personal brand and tell the story about yourself that you want to be told.
Don't allow others to tell the "story of you" except YOU because it most likely will not be postive.

Pick key members of your network carefully because many will not be as complimentary as you think. I have made many reference calls that I am sure the individual thought would say great things and they were full of negative remarks.

Keep your valued thoughts to your closest confidants. Assume that most of what you tell someone will be shared with someone else and probably exaggerated as well.

Every company, school, community has individuals who will gain your confidence to gather information.

Remember YOU are the CEO of You, Inc.and you communicate your own image. Don't let others communicate it for you.

There is a "tell it all PERSON" in every town or company so beware!

Loyalty is an overused word and those that you believe are friends will forgo friendship to get ahead of their closest friend.

Never share anything personal in an email or in a phone message because it will forwarded or shared 90% of the time.

Big town - Small Town, Large business - small business, Facebook-Twitter. Your network community is all of these places and more so be ever mindful.

BUT ABOVE ALL ELSE REMEMBER

There are good people in the world and hopefully many of them are on your "Key Network" list. Don't let the competitiveness of our world and the cut throat actions get you down, Good over Evil! Those that you value most will provide you the greatest rewards !

A NETWORK IS A VALUABLE TOOL WHEN USED IN THE RIGHT CONTEXT !