Ask HN: How do you deal with continuous requests for cooperation?
6 comments
Revel in it. Anyone asking you for cooperation is in a segment of that population that's less than 1%.
What you need to do is get their contacts and spend 15 minutes of your time _understanding_ their business. Got it? Now lock that face, image and line of work into your mind and put away their card in the rolodex.
You don't realize it, but if you keep doing that, you will become one of highly coveted people in the business: the connector. Even if you never work with any of them directly, you can introduce people to each other and your social network gains and becomes profitable, thanks to you.
The highest business relationship you can have with someone is to become their trusted advisor. Their confidant. Their go to guy for problem solving. People in high positions have many people asking them questions, many people offering them solutions for a fee, but few who genuinely want to listen to them and share their professional experiences as friends.
Whatever you can do yourself, or with paid employees, pales in comparison to what everyone you know, along with their paid employees, can do together.
When you are in that role, you can delegate entire companies to become a wing of your small firm. But always keep your mutual best interest in mind: no one likes a take take take only person, or a bully.
Guard your reputation with your life: recommend only people you trust. Suggest people to others in their "rank"; never introduce a high value C-level executive to someone you're sure is a kickass tax-form chef, even if you would use the shady little accountant yourself, introducing him to the big boss makes you look cheap. Introduce people to each other who you know could benefit each other personally and professionally. So you know an amazing underground film director who can make both indie films, and awe-inspiring corporate promotion videos; if you know this director is an uncontrollable social renegade, and a pot-head to boot, STEP IN and manage the guy, don't unleash him on the board-room and expect good karma to come your way after their "profitable" cooperation producing the company's annual event. You are responsible for people you introduce to each other, make sure the relationship can work right from the start, but if you're unsure, be at hand to make it happen (if it doesn't work out; there are at least two people in your immediate network who don't trust your judgement; and this rotten segment grows proportional to how many others in your network they both know and talk to.)
blah blah blah, I am sure this is gonna go way over HN's head :-/
What you need to do is get their contacts and spend 15 minutes of your time _understanding_ their business. Got it? Now lock that face, image and line of work into your mind and put away their card in the rolodex.
You don't realize it, but if you keep doing that, you will become one of highly coveted people in the business: the connector. Even if you never work with any of them directly, you can introduce people to each other and your social network gains and becomes profitable, thanks to you.
The highest business relationship you can have with someone is to become their trusted advisor. Their confidant. Their go to guy for problem solving. People in high positions have many people asking them questions, many people offering them solutions for a fee, but few who genuinely want to listen to them and share their professional experiences as friends.
Whatever you can do yourself, or with paid employees, pales in comparison to what everyone you know, along with their paid employees, can do together.
When you are in that role, you can delegate entire companies to become a wing of your small firm. But always keep your mutual best interest in mind: no one likes a take take take only person, or a bully.
Guard your reputation with your life: recommend only people you trust. Suggest people to others in their "rank"; never introduce a high value C-level executive to someone you're sure is a kickass tax-form chef, even if you would use the shady little accountant yourself, introducing him to the big boss makes you look cheap. Introduce people to each other who you know could benefit each other personally and professionally. So you know an amazing underground film director who can make both indie films, and awe-inspiring corporate promotion videos; if you know this director is an uncontrollable social renegade, and a pot-head to boot, STEP IN and manage the guy, don't unleash him on the board-room and expect good karma to come your way after their "profitable" cooperation producing the company's annual event. You are responsible for people you introduce to each other, make sure the relationship can work right from the start, but if you're unsure, be at hand to make it happen (if it doesn't work out; there are at least two people in your immediate network who don't trust your judgement; and this rotten segment grows proportional to how many others in your network they both know and talk to.)
blah blah blah, I am sure this is gonna go way over HN's head :-/
"blah blah blah, I am sure this is gonna go way over HN's head :-/"
Well, not everyone's head, at least. :-)
Well, not everyone's head, at least. :-)
Personally, I will have lunch with just about anyone who wants to show up somewhere that I am. gotta eat anyhow, right? it takes a little longer.
I don't have much advice on where to go from there, though; I'm free with advice, but I productize my, uh, outputs.
I've personally been getting lots of merger/buyout flirtation; but I've got little interest in selling unless you want silly valuations, and it seems that my company is worth about 1 year of earnings, and it's worth a lot more than that to me, so uh, no go.
still, just knowing people in your industry is a very good thing. And you've gotta eat anyhow, right? so go have lunch with people. It's kinda fun, too.
I don't have much advice on where to go from there, though; I'm free with advice, but I productize my, uh, outputs.
I've personally been getting lots of merger/buyout flirtation; but I've got little interest in selling unless you want silly valuations, and it seems that my company is worth about 1 year of earnings, and it's worth a lot more than that to me, so uh, no go.
still, just knowing people in your industry is a very good thing. And you've gotta eat anyhow, right? so go have lunch with people. It's kinda fun, too.
Hi [name]
I'd love to work with you on your [idea/concept/plan for world domination], it sounds really [promising/cool/awesome/sexy]!
Right now, I've got [n] things on the go right now, and as you can imagine that takes up a lot of my time. I'm always interested in looking for new opportunities, but it's only fair to dedicate my time properly.
Tell you what, would you be willing to brainstorm a bit regarding your [idea/concept/plan for world domination]? I'd like to know more about your vision, the way you'd see me fitting in, and how you'd see things progressing.
Give me a good outline that I can ponder for a little while, then if it looks promising, we can meet for lunch and discuss it. I'm more than willing to drop [business 1/business 2] if your [idea/concept/plan for world domination] is more interesting!
Look forward to hearing from you!
[your name]
(tl;dr: if you force the prospect to qualify the venture in a nice way, it will instantly filter not-promising ones and only use your time up with stuff that might be worth acting on)
I'd love to work with you on your [idea/concept/plan for world domination], it sounds really [promising/cool/awesome/sexy]!
Right now, I've got [n] things on the go right now, and as you can imagine that takes up a lot of my time. I'm always interested in looking for new opportunities, but it's only fair to dedicate my time properly.
Tell you what, would you be willing to brainstorm a bit regarding your [idea/concept/plan for world domination]? I'd like to know more about your vision, the way you'd see me fitting in, and how you'd see things progressing.
Give me a good outline that I can ponder for a little while, then if it looks promising, we can meet for lunch and discuss it. I'm more than willing to drop [business 1/business 2] if your [idea/concept/plan for world domination] is more interesting!
Look forward to hearing from you!
[your name]
(tl;dr: if you force the prospect to qualify the venture in a nice way, it will instantly filter not-promising ones and only use your time up with stuff that might be worth acting on)
Opportunities really do come out of nowhere. It's risky to leave any unexplored.
But use a priority queue. In other words, feel free to turn people down while you're busy, but don't forget who you've said "no" to. Over time, a person's priority goes up, just like when you're fixing bugs. If you've said "no" 3 times to a lunch, eventually you should say "yes" even if you are still busy.
But use a priority queue. In other words, feel free to turn people down while you're busy, but don't forget who you've said "no" to. Over time, a person's priority goes up, just like when you're fixing bugs. If you've said "no" 3 times to a lunch, eventually you should say "yes" even if you are still busy.
Prioritize according to what you want to get done. Trying to keep lots of options open will keep you from getting much accomplished. You must ruthlessly prune what options you maintain to what will serve your ends.
Make it plain you're busy, but be interested anyway. You never know what comes your way, one day you may find the golden opportunity knocking on your door, it would be a waste if you found you nailed it shut.
My problem:
1. I don't want to "close the door" on a potential deal or cooperation because what might not be an opportunity now, could turn into something interesting later on.
2. I can't (and don't want to) spend time meeting people when I actually should work on my products.
What is your approach to deal with this dilemma of keeping people interested and open but at the same time staying focused on your current tasks and goals?
Any recommendations to filter out the promising ones from the not-promising ones?