Top Exec Blog (Web Log)

While traveling on an international assignment recently, I had the distinct realization that by relentlessly networking with others in business and personal interest areas, you constantly expand yourself as a person, and also shrink the world.

Two recent examples of the "small world" experience stemming from "big network" activities include the following: While traveling south from the USA to a major business destination in Brazil, I boarded a jet and ran into a high-level executive from one of the world's premier courier and package shipping/logistics companies. He and I had met several months earlier as I pursued opportunities with the multinational he represents, and only a few weeks earlier had exchanged emails when I announced my recent career news to my personal network. Small world, that we're on the same plane going to the same destination!

Upon my return from Brazil, as I was waiting in one of the terminal lines, I bumped into the Managing Director for Latin America of a major computer/software firm where I had previously worked. He and I knew each other from those days, of course, and we struck up a conversation about his industry and mine, and shared notes on the many changes since we worked together (he's been there for 32 years!). It was a pleasant exchange of news, business cards and pleasantries (in Portuguese, of course), and brought to mind the power of networking, since many of the same colleagues we shared back then, are still with the firm, and I'm sure he will mention me and my new endeavors to shared acquaintances. All of which confirms that a big network creates a small world --- make the most of it, since you never know when you will cross paths with those who's activities might intersect with yours on the Career Path Express™.

Thanks for reading. Your comments are welcome, or just share this with a friend or colleague.

© Daniel A. Cabrera, All rights reserved, 2007.