Keith Ferrazzi Quotes

Everyone sees what you appear to be,” observed Machiavelli, “few really know what you are.

People you’re contacting to create a new relationship need to see or hear your name in at least three modes of communication — by, say, an e-mail, a phone call, and a face-to-face encounter — before there is substantive recognition. • Once you have gained some early recognition, you need to nurture a developing relationship with a phone call or e-mail at least once a month. • If you want to transform a contact into a friend, you need a minimum of two face-to-face meetings out of the office. • Maintaining a secondary relationship requires two to three pings a year. • Social media pings (status updates, retweets, comments, etc.) are terrific for ongoing relationship maintenance, especially for the fringe of your network, but they don’t replace the need for one-to-one pinging with the people in your highest-priority network, those people connected to your current goals.

GENEROSITY + VULNERABILITY + ACCOUNTABILITY + CANDOR = TRUST

Charm is simply a matter of being yourself. Your uniqueness is your power.

Touching is a powerful act

Business cycles ebb and flow; your friends and trusted associates remain.

Sticking to the people we know is a tempting behavior. But unlike some forms of dating. A networker isn't looking to achieve only a single successful union. Creating an enriching circle of trusted relationships requires one to be out there, in the mix, all the time.

As William James pointed out, “The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated.

BEST FRIENDS
are like Stars...
You don't always see
Them, but you know
they are always there

Nothing infuriates reporters and editors more, I’m told, than to get a pitch from someone who clearly has no idea what their publication is about or who their audience is.

Kevin, that’s just self-defeating crap. From the first day I joined Deloitte — that’s a pretty large consulting firm, right? — I went out of my way to take on projects no one wanted and initiated projects no one had thought of doing. I e-mailed my boss, and sometimes my boss’s boss, ideas. And I did it almost every day. What was the worst thing that could happen? I’d get fired from a job I didn’t like anyway. Alternatively, I’d make the effort to create the job — regardless of where it was — that I thought would make me happy.

And the rule in life that has unprecedented power is that the individual who knows the right people, for the right reasons, and utilizes the power of these relationships, can become a member of the “club,” whether he started out as a caddie or not.

Ultimately, everyone has to ask himself or herself how they're going to fail. We all do, you know, so let's get that out of the way. The choice isn't between success and failure; it's between choosing risk and striving for greatness, or risking nothing and being certain of mediocrity.

Competitive edge in the industrial era was won by constantly reengineering process and systems. Today it’s won by improving relationships.

Hi, this is Keith Ferrazzi. I’m just calling back because I haven’t heard from Michael.” Here again, without being too pushy, you begin to create the presumption that his return call is imminent and expected.