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This Is What Naval Ravikant Got Wrong About the Value of Networking
Quoting him here from the TPM review:
Business Networking Is a Time Waste
I think business networking is a complete waste of time (…) if you’re building something interesting, you will always have more people who will want to know you. Trying to build business relationships well in advance of doing business is a complete waste of time. I have a much more comfortable philosophy: “Be a maker who makes something interesting people want. Show your craft, practice your craft, and the right people will eventually find you.”
I have to disagree.
Personally, I did some of my best networking before I had a business.
Since I didn't have a product, anytime I networked, I was forced to look for ways to give because I had nothing to sell. And that made me get better at following the social exchange quickly which led to more and better relationships.
Now, that I have a business and product that I'm ready to launch (repeating this from my recent journal entry), I have:
- Friends who have agreed to help promote the product: at the moment, it would be promoted to roughly 90k people (including my email list)
- Another friend who's recommending the course to his consulting firm: he says they already invest thousands into training and development and that they would likely get the course for its 300 employees
- A friend who's covered all of the marketing costs for the launch: which he gave to me as a recent gift
So, for me, networking before I had a business was not a waste of time at all. And I'm inclined to say that it wouldn't be for other driven, ambitious people out there either.
Another issue I see with Ravikant's philosophy is this part:
“Be a maker who makes something interesting people want. Show your craft, practice your craft, and the right people will eventually find you.”
That sounds like it's saying, "Build it and they will come."
One of the reasons many people network in the first place is because they did build it and then no one came, which led them to "try networking," and go to events with a direct sales attitude (see The Eisenhower Matrix in "This Is the Truth About Networking (You'll Waste Time)").
That ruins the experience for others in the room because many of them showed up to make a sale themselves, not to buy anything. And the networker doesn't understand why they can't make a sale or get a referral from anyone there.
Eventually, this leads the networker to rationalize that networking is a waste of time. But, in truth, it was his attitude and approach that led him to manufacture his own misfortune.
What Naval Ravikant Got Right About Networking
You should still follow certain principles such as:
- Be so good they can't ignore you: the more valuable your product is and the more people know about the value of your product, the easier time you'll have in and outside the networking room.
- Make good investments in your product's marketing: so that more people know your product exists and the value of your product isn't understated. (It does no good to make your product valuable if nobody sees it and its worth is overlooked.)
Agree, that’s why we have networking, marketing and advertisement. And people pay big money for it
If you have a good product and nobody knows about it, it’s pointless.
Yeah, absolutely, that was just a catch-all personal opinion that didn't have caveats.
It may have been valid for him, and it can certainly apply in some cases.
Ie.: if you're sure your project will get everyone you need to you, then yes.
On the other hand... who can be sure of that?
As a last note, the book was written by someone else, and he used Naval's tweets as sources.
Some sometimes people may just Tweet a thought that has no space for much else.
