THE MATHEMATICAL FORMULA FOR NETWORKING SUCCESS

DECADES AGO, I went to a breakout session at a BNI conference that was entitled: The Mathematical Formula for Networking Success. Well, as the Founder of the organization, I absolutely had to see this presentation to learn the working formula for successful business networking.

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The speaker began his presentation by writing a formula on the flip chart. He talked about "D" representing Dunbar's average number of relationships and "M" representing Metcalf's law (also known as the Squared Connection Effect). He continued with a very convoluted and confusing formula doing the square root of one thing and multiplying it by something that seemed totally irrelevant to me.

He hesitated as he spoke to us. He put his fingertips to his lips and hemmed and hawed in his presentation. It was uncomfortably clear to all of us that he was confused and bewildered by his own formula. Not only that, but we were also very confused and bewildered by his formula as well. We all sat there feeling pretty embarrassed for him.

That’s when he turned around to the hundreds of people in the room, picked up a huge red felt marker and put a giant red “X” through the entire formula and said to all of us – “oh forget about the math… it’s all about relationships!!!

The entire room simultaneously exploded into laughter. He was right. Business networking (when done right) is all about the relationships you build.

He went on to explain that there is no mathematical formula for success in business networking. The formula is all about nurturing professional relationships and while there may not be a mathematical formula, there are some principles, that when applied properly, add up to great results in networking.