Jesus Gabriel Mendez argues that networking isn't about finding a mentor to rescue you. Real connections come from doing the work yourself: cold-calling, making deals, negotiating. He built a peer group of successful friends under 22 across different industries, and says surrounding yourself with achievers who ask good questions beats waiting for the perfect mentor.
This is a very tricky subject. Is networking good? A big misconception is that you will find the perfect person in the perfect situation and they'll put you in position to be successful, which I think is very, very wrong. And another thing is, when you're not already successful, most people don't want to talk to you. So if you're looking for somebody to come save you, that's not going to happen. Now, there is a right way to do it. I can tell you from my experience, my group of friends now, we're all under 22 years old, we're all very successful, but but we're all in different industries. Meaning I didn't learn anything real estate specific to actually boost my business. What I do recommend though is keep going in your business, keep asking questions to the people that are already successful, and people will surround you. All the connections that I've learned from real estate has either been from me cold calling, from me giving out deals, from me sending out deals, and from me negotiating. All these networking connections have gotten from me actually doing the business, and those have actually boosted me.
