1000 Business Lessons Every Businessman Must Know

Chapter 67 About connections: connections are wealth (2)
Many successful business people realize the importance of friends to their business success.Carnegie, the American steel magnate and success master, said: "Professional knowledge only accounts for 15% of a person's success, while the remaining 85% depends on interpersonal relationships." The resources that friends have are a kind of potential for you. of intangible assets.If you are good at integrating it, you will undoubtedly capture 85% of your career success.Of course, using resources owned by friends is not free.You have to exchange what you have, and let friends share your resources to benefit from them.

537. A friend can be your intermediary
In complex social relations, within the barriers formed by various social relations, mutual utilization is the weakness of human nature, but it is also a psychological tendency common to human beings, and this is the essence of "intermediary force".As the saying goes: "A fence with three stakes, a hero with three gangs".If you don't know or are not good at using the power of your friends, it's very difficult to make a difference in modern society by running alone in the world.

When relying on a friend as an intermediary, the following steps are generally followed:

1. Find "power", that is, to be friends with influential people
For businessmen, in the process of daily communication, they should always pay attention to the character, ability and influence of the people around them, and make friends with sincerity.In order to win the sincere help of others, you must first give something, such as sincerity or material, human hearts are flesh and blood, and your long-term dedication will always be rewarded.So when interacting with people, you should keep an eye on who has the ability to help you.

2. To borrow "strength", that is, to seek help from friends
Whether a friend can help you or not depends on how you usually behave.This requires you to take a long-term view when interacting with people, and don't do things because of small benefits, and don't do things because of big benefits.If you have any unhappiness with a helpful friend, you should first forgive him. "Small intolerance will lead to big plans." This is an old saying, and the ancients have also set an example in this regard. For example, Han Xin can be humiliated by his crotch , Zhang Liangneng picked up the old man's shoes.Once the usual foundation is laid, the accumulation of quantitative changes will eventually become quality, and it will be "obtained without effort".If you treat people well, they will naturally treat you with sincerity, and it is only natural for them to help you introduce some people who are very important to you at critical moments.From this point of view, the use of "strength" is completely included in the usual way of dealing with people.

What needs to be said here is that many people are not ignorant of the truth, but are embarrassed and unwilling to ask for help. They always feel that doing so is unseemly, as if they belittle their own abilities.In fact, these ideas are unnecessary.Never forget that even Napoleon needs others to help him build a bridge to success, let alone you are just an ordinary person?

538. Friends Can Be Your Support
People often say: "Rely on your parents at home, and rely on your friends when you go out."You can help you succeed through the support of your friends, including encouragement in times of adversity, support in times of setbacks, etc.

Emperors and generals need the support of friends to achieve dominance, and the same is true for businessmen in the business world.

Fashion Queen Chanel was born in Saumur, a small town in southwest France.As a weak woman, it was not easy for her to develop her career in unaccompanied Paris.

At this embarrassing and critical moment, her friend Capel extended a helping hand to her.This easy-going, informal and well-off foreigner is a strong support for Chanel to enter the clothing industry in Paris.

In 1912, Capel funded Chanel to open a hat shop. "The novel and unique hat she designed was very popular among Parisian women, and it was called the "Chanel hat". This unique way of wearing became popular in the streets and alleys of Paris and became fashionable.

With the support of Capel, she changed the hat shop into a fashion shop, designed and sewed by herself, and devoted herself to clothing reform.She achieved world-renowned success.

Chanel's ability to become the queen of fashion can be said to have originated from the initial support of her friend Capel.It is hard to imagine her success in Paris without the support of her friends.

It is very difficult to achieve great achievements by relying on one's own strength.Because a person's power is too limited after all, even if you are covered with iron, you still can't make a few nails.This meager strength can't even protect yourself, so how can you compete with others?And true friendship, which enables you to get support from your friends, can produce great and magical power.

539. Friends Can Provide You with Information
In this era of advanced information, with infinitely developed information, there is infinite possibility of development.The information comes from your intelligence station, which is your network of friends, as many friends as there are, as much intelligence, this is a platform for your career to develop infinitely.

In our work and life, friends who can serve as think tanks can be roughly divided into the following three categories:

The first category provides us with information and opinions on our work, called "Information Providers".Most of these friends are engaged in editing, advertising and public relations work for journalists, magazines and books. Even if you don’t disturb each other frequently, the other party will often provide valuable advice, such as the above-mentioned “telephone think tank”.

The second category provides our advice on how we work and how we live, and are called "advisors".Most of these friends are experts, or even No.1 in the industry. We can regard them as seniors or teachers.

The third category is not directly related to work and is called "playmates".In principle, they are not colleagues. Usually, we met in seminars, fellowships and various associations, and some of them are also "drinking friends".Such friends can be not only "backups", but sometimes even our "guardians".

Remember: getting information from friends is much more important than other sources.Give full play to the intelligence of your friends, and you will be more like a fish in water in the mall.

540. Friends Can Advise You
As the saying goes, the authorities are obsessed, but the bystanders are clear.Being busy with your own business all day, your vision may be limited to a certain extent.A friend, on the other hand, can see issues that you overlook or cannot see from the sidelines.Therefore, if you have a friend who can help you make suggestions, it will be of great help to your career.

Friends' small plans sometimes seem inconspicuous, and even we ourselves question the feasibility of the plan.But after it was actually implemented, it brought surprising benefits.

With the development of Rockefeller's oil empire, the danger of being unmanageable due to its huge size has also become more and more dangerous.Rockefeller clearly saw this malady and paid attention to it.At this time, Rockefeller found an article in a public publication, which wrote: "The era of small businessmen is over, and the era of large enterprises is coming." He felt that this coincided with his monopoly thinking, so he took the initiative Befriend Dodd, the author of the article, and the common views make the two sides become good friends.

Dodd was a young lawyer who, after becoming friends with Rockefeller, actively sought legal loopholes for Rockefeller's company.

Under the guidance of Dodd's "trust" theory, Rockefeller successfully created an unprecedented joint enterprise - trust.Under this trust structure, Rockefeller merged more than 40 manufacturers, monopolizing 80% of the country's oil refining industry and 90% of the oil pipeline business.

Trusts quickly spread throughout the United States and in various industries. In a short period of time, this form of monopoly organization accounted for 90% of the US economy.Obviously, Rockefeller successfully created a unique era in American history - the era of monopoly.

Obviously, Dodd's "one theory" has led to such a "big result", which shows how precious it is to have a friend who always advises oneself.If you have friends who are interested in your business and have quick minds, you might as well take a little time to chat with them.Perhaps, a plan to change your destiny is born from this.

541. Friends can cooperate with you

In the business world, it is hard to fight alone.That means you have to bear all the risks on your own, and you have to face all the difficulties yourself.Even after success, those who lack sharing can only leave behind the lament of "lonely hero".

If you can cooperate with like-minded friends and rely on the alliance of friends to achieve great things, the resistance to progress will undoubtedly be much smaller.

Di Welk, one of the founders of the American Amway Company, offered his own advice to businessmen: "One of the most important factors in your climb to the top of success is to be with friends who are willing to do it together."

Amway is a well-known manufacturer and seller of consumer products, with a global direct sales network of more than 360 million independent distributors.It sells more than 4300 kinds of products, including Amway's own and other brands of goods, sold entirely through door-to-door sales and mail order, with an annual turnover of billions of dollars.Amway's slogan is "We give out the best products!".

The marketing network of this business kingdom jointly created by Di Welk and An Luo, whom he met since childhood and became a lifelong business partner, covers North America, Asia and Europe, with more than [-] employees worldwide.The success of such a huge multinational company is not accidental. Amway's success largely depends on the joint efforts of its founders Di Welk and An Luo.

Di Welk used Amway's success to prove to us that if you want to reach the peak of your chosen field, you must work with friends who like challenges, think positively, be spontaneous, and work hard.

(End of this chapter)