Eric Siu explains why trying to be interesting backfires in networking. Instead, be genuinely interested in others and connect people to each other. He built his network by hosting intimate dinners and happy hours, not by chasing attention.
We all start with nothing in terms of our network, right? Some, some of us might be, you know, have a little bit of a slight edge over other people initially, but I started with nothing originally. I would go to networking events and initially it was very awkward, didn't know what to do at those events. And then eventually I got better. And then eventually I started speaking in front of people, maybe like 15, 20 people first, and I got better and better over time. You're gonna get better and then you're gonna realize what you're actually good at when it comes to networking. For me, I like throwing dinners. I like throwing intimate dinners. I like connecting people. I like having very high-level people just, you know, breaking bread together. And I like throwing little events as well. I like throwing little happy hours. And then other than that, I just like attending other events, right? Especially in the very early days of a new industry, the magic is in the events. The magic is in these in-person connections, right? Just again, being interested instead of trying to be interesting. Being interested in what they're doing. Like, what are you excited about right now? What are you working on right now? And then trying to connect the dots, right? And then you can be that dot connector and then your network's just going to grow that way. And eventually it's all going to come back to you. I guarantee it.
