Scott Free Thinking

It is said that there are those who contribute and then those who just feed off of the success of others. To me it seems that no matter which one you are, you’re always relying on other people for your own success, even if you are a contributor. After all, if there were no people around, what would there be to contribute to? If you were an engineer, you wouldn’t be designing for anybody. If you were a lawyer, you wouldn’t be protecting anyone. If you were a psychologist, you wouldn’t be helping anyone, and so on. It is interesting to think about, the idea that there is a huge portion of the population that is supported purely off of the efforts of other people who contribute and feed off of nothing but other people. This, in terms of human economics, is such a new and amazing thing. Even though really there should be some level of self sufficiency coming from everyone on the planet, few of us actually support ourselves in a literal way.

Instead, we rely on the flow of designated value, and most of the time this value comes in the form of money. There are two very bizarre ideas to think about when it comes to networking and money. Number one, the economy is powered by nothing more than the movement of money. Two, it is possible for a group of people to work together to simply circulate money among each other in relation to goods or services. This is part of the basis for network marketing, but under a direct interpretation of how to apply these ideas I think a lot gets lost and pragmatic results do not really take place. Then again, can we say that companies employing a massive amount of people at hourly wages is necessarily the best way to distribute wealth and get things done either? One thing is certain, though, human beings would not be able to survive if they were alone and isolated. Everything we do economically involves working with other people.

And now, we of course come to you. You’re a person, right? (Come on, you don’t REALLY need to answer that.) You are a part of this entire weird economic process too. Perhaps the best thing that the both of us can do is to figure out how to really apply this knowledge on a practical level, and apply it immediately.

Consider for a moment that everything you do in the midst of a social situation is often labeled by each and every individual with some form of value. This value is not like money, it cannot really be written down on paper and measured, but it certainly is visible and can be observed. This value is social value. I’ve talked about how to Create Social Value in Your Identity, and one of the driving principles behind how to do that is the knowledge that socially we are all operating on an underlying primitive level of development, all at least in part based on dominance and submission. If you are alone in a room with entire crowds of people, you probably stand out, and not in a good way. Likewise, if you appear to have a lot of friends and you’re laughing and having a good time with them, you’re likely perceived by many as being a fun, outgoing person who has a healthy social life. The biggest application of this knowledge comes to people who are into dating or the art of the pick up.

The fact of the matter is, it goes way beyond that. If you really want to apply this knowledge in the best way possible, you will want to apply it to every aspect of your life as it pertains to other people. In the business world, there are dozens, hundreds, probably even thousands of books on the subject of how to better persuade, negotiate, and otherwise socially charm your way into getting an advantage in proposals or situations. My dad happens to be someone who runs his own business, and his bookshelf is flooded with these sorts of books and other training materials. Lately I have been speaking with a lot of people about the topic of honesty, and perhaps it’s like beating a dead horse now, but I can’t help but mention it again. Later on I found my dad using these very negotiation tactics he had learned from these books on me, and apparently they worked. I felt shammed.

When you’re working with your social network to improve your own gains and life status, your goal is to stimulate and not manipulate.

It all depends on what your goal is. If your goal is negatively oriented, you may notice that in order to obtain that negatively oriented goal you likely have to actually turn to manipulation. If your goal is revenge, for example, revenge often requires manipulation when it involves other people. If your goal is positively oriented, then the best way to usually obtain that goal is to stimulate. For instance, if your goal is to make more money to better support your family then you’ll need to start working with others to improve either your career, your business, or your overall work situation. This requires you to contribute, which in turn aids others and often encourages them to contribute to back to you. Karma.

If your goal is to obtain better social value, one of the easiest places to start is to look to your best friends and find ways of helping them to increase their social value. If you want to appear as a business professional, it would probably help if your friends appeared as business professionals. If you wanted to appear as a rock star, it would like help if the people you associated yourself with were in the music industry, and so on. It is a simple idea, but how many people out there are truly giving it serious consideration and making it a specific point to go after? From what I can see, not as many as you might think.

With clothes, this whole thing happens naturally from individual choice. Business men will wear suits, rock stars will wear extravagant, maybe even sort of exotic looking items and garments. Clothes have a definite social value and they send a definite social message. Are you congruent with the clothes you wear? What kind of person do you think you really are and how could your clothing illustrate that? Clothes and figuring out how to best dress yourself is not just something for women.

Perhaps the best way to describe how to start working to improve your social circle from networking is to start simply communicating at your closest level. On that note, take note of your different levels. What are your levels of social closeness? The first and closest level would be something like your spouse, then your best friends or family, followed by your normal friends, followed by those whom you’ve only recently met, and finally: those you’ve never met before. Stimulate the levels closest to you first and then ascend outward and you will see a difference in what you’re experiencing.

After all, don’t you owe it to them anyway? Your people empower you.