Turning social capital into social income...not that easy.

[John-Paul Hatala]

If we take a purely transactional view of networking and think about how many times we've converted an opportunity for a contact to help us out, it's probably a small number for most of us. There are some individuals that are naturally good at this, while the majority of us have a hard time. But isn't it the point of networking to tap into a social resource so that you can accomplish a goal. What good is social capital if we can't turn it into something that helps us. Of course, the key is to make sure these transactions are mutually beneficial. The next time you seek out someone for help, think about what you're going to do to make this happen. If anyone has an example of this, I would love to hear about it. Best, JP