Power Up your Social Circle with Acquaintances
The following chapter is from Street Smarts: 101 Short Stories, Essays, and Insights to Improve Communication Skills
I got a call from Harry.
He called with pure excitement in his voice.
‘Armani, guess what!!’
What?
‘I got the job! I’m moving to Virginia next week.’
Whoa, congrats bro! Guess the application finally went through, huh?
‘Nope. Doubt they even reviewed my application.’
Wait, what? Then how did you get the job?
‘Let’s just say I knew someone who knew someone.’
Harry is one of my acquaintances who was frantically searching for a job after graduation.
Fortunately, he got his precious job.
However, it wasn’t the traditional way through a resume, cover letter, and praying for a phone interview.
Instead, it was from a different method.
It was through his network.
What is a network?
In the technical world, a network is an interconnection of nodes that can communicate with one another.
Picture the internet.
My computer is a node.
Your computer is a node.
Through the link, I can email you.
Same concept in the real world.
Jimmy is a node.
Tommy is a node.
When Jimmy says hello to Tommy, he sparks a possible link.
Want to know something even cooler?
When Jimmy says hello to Tommy, he has the potential to be connected with many of the nodes that Tommy knows as well!
That is the power of a network.
In my friend Harry’s case, he didn’t particularly know anyone in the company that hired him.
But his cousin Rohit sure did.
Once Rohit found out that Harry needed a job, he made a few calls to his buddy Mike.
Mike loves Rohit & knew that his referral meant something.
And just like that, Mike short-circuited Harry through the resume & cover letter process & got him an interview.
‘How does someone power up their social circle?’
Have more acquaintances.
‘Are friends & acquaintances the same?’
Nope.
You have a deeper connection with a friend.
- Mostly informal.
You have an intermediate-level connection with an acquaintance.
- Mostly formal.
‘Why not just have a bunch of friends?’
Because you can have deep connections with just so many people.
But after a while, you get burnt out & fail to be a top-notch friend.
Instead, have a small friend circle, nurture deep bonds, and then have a large acquaintance circle & nurture the bonds so it remains relevant.
Acquaintances can be more powerful for long-term goals than friends.
Chances are you know a lot of your friends, friends.
But for acquaintances, they have a whole new network than you.
And with acquaintances, they don’t really care if you are calling them every day.
Just a text once or a few times a month should do the trick.
So, what does this all mean?
It means that a simple ‘hello’ can connect your node to a brand-new network.
In the world of networks & systems, nonlinear effects take place.
The world of nonlinearity is much different from linearity.
It’s easy to rule out the ‘hello’ as a small move.
However, that small move can compound into something big.
Harry didn’t get his job by playing the formal rules.
He got his job by going beyond the rules.
An acquaintance is nothing to scoff at.
The acquaintance is born from a win-win relationship.
A win-win relationship that will pay dividends for years to come.
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