More Karma
Somehow things work out. I’ll share a story here that is the exact opposite but to the same effect. For the last few months, I have used a new philosophy towards life & business. I call it Karmic Marketing. In past lives, whenever an interesting deal crossed my path, I’m attempt to broker it and get piece. Sure, sometimes you do great but you’re not really any value and more often then not you annoy people by getting in the middle. So i changed my tune, i took on the attitude that anyone that bothers to reach out to me and appears like a serious/smart/real etc… person, I will give an hour of time to too - for free, I will happily give free advice, help solve a problem, lend out my brain to anyone that passes by fairly low threshold. On top of that If i really like the person and get comfortable and we connect, I will volunteer to make a couple of introductions for them - without them asking. Whether its potential business partners, potential friends or investors, I will send out my “Happy Networking!” emails and see it off. When I first started this, I actually got negative feedback - can you believe someone not wanting a free introduction to an employer when they are looking for a job!? Anyhow, I got passed that and learned that my introduction approach is only meant for people with optimistic people and it works. This approach has gotten people to instantly trust me and i routinely get emails like “I am so happy i met you”, “your the last altruistic person” - not trying to brag, i really get these frequently.
So what’s the catch? None. I don’t ask for anything in return. In fact I go further when I meet people now, I tell them what I’m going to do, the normal reaction is “huh?” then i do it and show that i can follow through. Now it doesn’t matter if a deal ever gets done as a result of these introductions, its the fact that i go out of my way to try to help people that matters.
So how is this relevant to Bill’s post? Well its because good things happen randomly and life’s path is unpredictable. I’ve spent the past 2 years trying to figure out my next big move and i finally figured it out (the future of online advertising) and before i even had so much as a deck together, I’ve had a dozen investors and people that i’ve helped offer to help me back. I didn’t ask but in the next week without so much as trying to get a meeting with anyone, I have 3 meetings and was invited to a pitch thing in january.
Life happens in weird ways. Do good, stay strong and roll with it, eventually good things happen if you hold your convictions….
just my 2 cents…
richie “the bootstrapper” hecker
