Value in Networking... we've all heard it before!

Today I learned the power of networking.
It's been pushed into my brain over and over again, thousands of times by my father, my teachers in college, and anyone else in the business world, but what they don't tell you, is that it's actually one of those things that's going to take time out of your week. I mean some people do this stuff for a living!

But today was special. I was going through my E-mail contacts and pushing them through linkedIn, blogsearch, etc etc, just to see who would pop up (Mainly from my class), and my old Law teacher popped into my head. That woman changed my belief in teachers at college, and really gave me a good lesson in getting through school, but more importantly, she ended our last conversation with "If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to call". And until now, those were great cliche words.

But today, I looked at a friend of mine who's interested in a good summer job. The man has a resume that shows extreme dedication, intelligence, and an ability to go out there above and beyond the rest in his field. He's a published author for Pete's sake! The guy can reference HIMSELF! And I realized that there's a potential benefit to both parties should I introduce them.

Today, I learned to believe in networking.

Tomorrow's question: Hard copy, or digi-copy of my contacts...

My facination with learning

First blog...
Kinda scared...
Just keep typing... thoughts flow, it takes time.

I have an obsession with Ted.com. I call it an obsession, because really, almost every video I watch from there literally blows my mind. Richard Branson was arrested while working with the Sex Pistols. There's a Harvard professor who literally brought me to tears with his story about depression, and the radical measures it took to save him. Right now, I'm hooked on Sir Ken Robinson, who in 20 minutes summarized a view I have had about the education system since high school ended. Blows my mind. Every time.

I also have an obsession with comma's, but, I'm trying, hard, to fix that.

A thought occurred to me a little while ago, with something that I once joked about with my dad. I think he said something like, "The best way to get something done is to get 2 people yelling at each other." *SHOCK* What crazy advice! How could 2 people yelling at each other, something we view to be 'childish' and unprofessional, be sound advice?
Well,...I have an 'adversary' in my class. This student and I have worked quite a few times on many different projects, and I only use the word 'adversary' because I can't find the other word I need. We get a lot of work done, A LOT! And we do great work, sometimes even work that we sit back and go 'WoW' to. But we get a lot of this work done, and big milestones completed when we're disagreeing.

And we disagree a lot.

But a lot of my good thoughts come from bouncing them off this student like a sounding board. I have a cloudy idea in my head, we wrestle with the idea for a little bit and something creative, unique, and valuable comes out of this argument. And this brings me to my original point (which I failed to mention up there I think...), I'm scared to go into a workforce that is so rigid, and bound by rules, regulations and procedure that I won't be allowed to have a sound board.

Stay tuned,
Maybe this blog thing will catch on?