Book SummaryNever Eat Alone, by Keith Ferrazzi

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Never Eat Alone

In Never Eat Alone, author and entrepreneur Keith Ferrazzi discusses how to develop fulfilling and mutually beneficial professional relationships: in other words, how to network. He explores three distinct stages of the networking process: preparing to network, building a network, and maintaining a network.

Prepare to Network

Before you start reaching out to people, take three steps to maximize the chances of your networking efforts being successful:

Step 1: Adopt the Right Attitude Toward Networking

You’ll find networking much easier if you internalize these four core beliefs about the process:

Core Belief #1: All networking should be reciprocal. If you take a lot from your connections without giving anything back, you’ll gain a reputation for being selfish and taking advantage of people.

Core Belief #2: Goodwill isn’t finite. Many professionals believe that they can only ask a contact for assistance a limited number of times before the person grows tired of being relied upon for help. However, this isn’t true. In fact, repeatedly asking someone for help strengthens your relationship because it demonstrates how highly you value that person: You believe in their ability to help you.

Core Belief #3: Networks should be created before you need them. Don’t wait to reach out to people in your field until you desperately need their help—for example, if you’ve just lost your job. They’ll be disinclined to help you because you’re a total stranger to them—why should they assist you? Instead, start to build your network long before your time of need. You’ll be able to spend months or years gaining your contacts’ trust and goodwill, making them much more likely to help you in the future.

Core Belief #4: Audacity is key. In a networking context, “audacity” means being bold enough to network with total strangers. If you limit yourself to networking only with people you’re already somewhat familiar with—for example, people who work at your company, or friends of friends—you shut yourself off from the opportunities and insights that strangers can provide.

Step #2: Decide Who to Network With

When deciding who to network with, there are four types of people who you should focus on:

1) People who can help you to meet your goals. For example, if your goal is to work at a particular company, connecting with its hiring managers may help you succeed. Make a comprehensive list of the people who can help you achieve your goals by creating a Relationship Action Plan, or RAP. This involves writing down:

• Your long-term goal: something that you want to achieve within the next three years
• At least one medium-term goal that will help you to achieve your long-term goal. This should be a goal that you can achieve within one year.
• At least one short-term goal that will help you to achieve your medium-term goal. This should be a goal that you can achieve within three months.
• Who you think you’ll need to network with to achieve each of the above goals

2) Mentors. Mentors are experienced professionals who are willing to support your career development. They can provide many kinds of assistance, including advice on the experience and skills you’ll need to advance your career. You can find a mentor:

• Through an official mentoring program at your workplace
• By “unofficially” asking your manager or another high-level colleague to mentor you
• By asking your parents or other older relatives if they can put you in contact with experienced professionals
• By directly approaching business owners, store managers, and other prominent professionals who live in your area

3) Super-connectors. Super-connectors are people who have dozens, if not hundreds, of professional contacts—contacts you can ask to be introduced to. They often work in industries that require them to know lots of people. Examples of super-connectors include:

• Headhunters, who know many hiring managers and jobseekers in the industry they cover
• Fundraisers, who have long lists of wealthy contacts they can ask for donations
• Journalists, who have contacts both in the media industry and in the industry that they write about (that’s how they get their story tips)

4) Prominent people. These individuals are leaders in their industry—for instance, CEOs of large corporations. Networking with them is useful for two reasons. First, you can probably learn a lot from them—they’re usually highly skilled and intelligent. Second, your connection with this prominent person gives you power by association, making it more likely that people approach you with a request to network.

There are various ways to come into contact with a prominent person:

• Become an industry leader yourself. You’ll be invited to the kinds of events where prominent people linger—for instance, awards ceremonies and exclusive conferences.
• Become a prominent member of a professional organization that’s relevant to your field—for example, a member of the board. You then have a reason to approach industry leaders: to ask them to speak at your organization’s events.
• Get involved with a charity or nonprofit as an activist or a board member. Many charities and nonprofits enlist prominent people to generate publicity for their cause. As a leading member of the organization, you may get to meet these individuals.
• Start playing golf, preferably at a high-class or elite club. Golf is the favorite sport of many prominent people—maybe you’ll bump into one on the course?

Step #3: Research People You Plan to Meet Soon

Try to find out as much about potential new contacts as possible. For instance, what precisely is their job role? What are their hobbies and interests? What are some of their recent career achievements? Researching people before you meet them is beneficial for two reasons:

1. **When you meet the person, you’ll be able to tailor the conversation to...

Never Eat Alone Summary Introduction

In Never Eat Alone, author and entrepreneur Keith Ferrazzi discusses how to develop fulfilling and mutually beneficial professional relationships: in other words, how to network. Ferrazzi believes that networking is crucial to career success for several reasons:

• When looking for people to do business with, leaders tend to choose people they already know and like. If you’re in this leader’s network, that person could be you.
• You’ll gain a reputation for being well-connected, which will increase your popularity even further. People tend to like those who are well-respected by lots of people.
• **You’ll also gain a reputation for...

Never Eat Alone Summary Part 1: Prepare to Network │ Chapter 1: Develop the Right Attitude

The first element of networking is preparing for the process. Take three steps to maximize the chances of your networking efforts being successful.

The first step is developing the right attitude about networking, which involves internalizing four core beliefs:

1. All networking should be reciprocal
2. Goodwill isn’t finite
3. Networks should be created before you need them
4. Audacity is key

Core Belief #1: All Networking Should Be Reciprocal

The first core belief to adopt is that all networking should be reciprocal. When seeking to connect with someone, don't just think about what they can give you, but also what you can give them. If you take a lot from your connections without giving anything back, you’ll gain a reputation for being selfish and taking advantage of people.

There are various things that you can offer a contact to keep your relationship reciprocal:

• Your services: For example, if you’re a skilled event planner and your contact is looking to arrange a conference, you could offer to help them.
• Your expertise: For instance, if your contact is looking to start investing and you’re an expert in that area, you could...

Never Eat Alone Summary Chapter 2: Decide Who to Network With

Once you’ve adopted the four core beliefs of networking, the next step in preparing to network is deciding who exactly you’re going to network with.

Connecting with anyone—from your peers, to leaders in your field, to your friends of friends—is arguably beneficial. The larger and more diverse your network is, the more support you can receive, and the more people you can help in return. However, there are four types of people whom you should make an extra effort to network with:

1. People who can help you to achieve your goals
2. Mentors
3. Super-connectors
4. Prestigious contacts

Type #1: People Who Can Help You Meet Your Goals

The most important people to network with are people who will help you to achieve your goals. This usually means professionals who have a direct connection to the field you aspire to succeed in. For instance, connecting with education professionals may help you achieve the goal of joining your local school board.

In this section, we’ll cover the three steps you need to take to successfully network with people who can help you achieve your goals:

1. Decide upon your goals.
2. Make a plan for achieving your goals, and figure out who...

Shortform Exercise: Create a Relationship Action Plan (RAP)

Making a relationship action plan will help you to identify not only your long-, medium-, and short-term goals, but also the people who you should network with to achieve these goals.

Write down your long-term professional goal: something that you want to achieve within the next three years. (Remember that your goal should be challenging yet achievable, and as specific as possible. Likewise, the best goals take into account both your passions and your skills.)

Shortform Exercise: Identify Mentors, Super-Connectors, and Prominent People

In addition to people who can help you achieve your goals, network with mentors, super-connectors, and prominent people. Identify people in each of these groups who you’d like to network with.

List one or two people who you believe could mentor you. Why have you chosen these people? What could you offer them in return for their guidance? (Remember: While it may be helpful to have a mentor who works in your industry, they don’t have to.)

Never Eat Alone Summary Chapter 3: Research the People You Plan to Network With

Now that you’ve decided who you’re going to network with, there’s one final step to take before reaching out to these people: trying to find out as much information about them as possible. For instance, what precisely is their job role? What product or service does their employer provide? What are their hobbies and interests? What are their professional and personal goals? What are some of their recent career achievements?

Getting the answers to at least some of these questions will give you an advantage when you come to meet the person, for two reasons. First, you’ll be able to tailor the conversation to suit the person’s interests and experiences. For example, if you discover their career goals, you can ask insightful questions about how they plan to achieve them. Tailoring your conversations in this way has two benefits:

1. The person is more likely to enjoy the conversation if you discuss topics they care about—and they’re more likely to want to speak to you again.
2. They’ll be flattered to discover that you’ve done your research about their background—it shows that you genuinely care about getting to know them. When people feel cared for, their emotional...

Never Eat Alone Summary Part 2: Build Your Network │ Chapter 4: Network by Arranging a Meeting

In the first part of this summary, we discussed the preparatory steps you should take before approaching potential new contacts. Now, it’s time to explore various strategies for building your network.

In this chapter, we’ll explore networking by arranging a meeting with someone. In the context of this strategy, “meeting” doesn’t necessarily mean a traditional business meeting. It simply means any situation in which you invite a person to meet with you face-to-face.

Ideas for the First Meeting

The first step in arranging any meeting is deciding what form you want it to take. For a first meeting, it’s a good idea to keep things fairly casual: You don’t want to intimidate your new contact with strict formality. To that end, here are four informal meeting scenarios you could try:

#1: Go for a coffee. The relaxed atmosphere of most coffee shops makes them the perfect setting for a casual meetup.

#2: Go for a meal. This could be breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner—whatever your schedule allows. Ferrazzi argues that food is an excellent icebreaker: Even if you and your contact can’t find anything else to talk about, you can discuss your meals’ quality....

Shortform Exercise: Practice Arranging a Meeting

There are many steps in arranging a networking meeting, including choosing the meeting’s format and actually asking a contact to meet.

Think of a potential new contact you’d like to arrange a meeting with. Why do you want to connect with this person? What would you be able to offer them to keep your relationship reciprocal?

Never Eat Alone Summary Chapter 5: Network at Conferences

A second networking strategy is approaching people at conferences. Conferences are great places to network because they’re full of people you already have something in common with: You’re all interested in the conference’s theme. As we discussed in the previous chapter, it’s much easier to connect with someone if you can bond over a shared interest.

Here are eight tips on how to make strong professional connections at conferences:

Tip #1: Help to Organize the Conference

When you first hear that a conference is going to take place, contact the organizers and offer to help them plan the event. For instance, offer to curate the guest list or find a location for the conference. Conference organizers are usually so busy that they take help from anyone who offers it.

Becoming a conference organizer will help your networking efforts in two ways. First, you’ll gain “insider knowledge” of who’s attending the event, meaning you can plan who you want to connect with and research their interests. Second, you’ll have access to private events for organizers, giving you the opportunity to network with conference leaders.

Tip #2: Speak at the Conference

If you hear about...

Never Eat Alone Summary Chapter 6: Network Using Social Media

The next type of networking we’re going to discuss is networking using social media: in other words, connecting with new people on sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These social media platforms have millions of users, at least some of whom would make valuable additions to your professional network.

There are two ways to use social media to network: approaching potential new contacts yourself, and getting new contacts to come to you. Let’s look at each method in detail.

Method #1: Approach People on Social Media

Reach out to potential contacts on social media using these three steps:

Step 1: Decide which social media users you want to connect with. For example, you may decide you’re only going to contact professionals who work in your industry. Alternatively, you may choose to approach any professional you think you’d have a good rapport with, for example, because you have a shared interest.

Ferrazzi advises against approaching users with high follower counts—for instance, in the hundreds of thousands or millions. These users probably receive dozens of requests to connect each day. Your attempt is likely to be either missed or ignored and...

Shortform Exercise: Brainstorm Compelling Social Media Content

One way to network using social media is to create compelling social media content that piques people’s interest and inspires them to contact you.

One type of content that social media users enjoy is posts that contain useful information—for instance, tips on how to break into a certain industry. Brainstorm two to three “useful” posts you could create. (Remember: All of the content you create should be authentic to your personality. Likewise, each post idea should be as unique as possible. Social media users love content that’s unlike anyone else’s.)

Never Eat Alone Summary Chapter 7: Network Using Traditional Media

In Chapter 6, we discussed how you can use social media to get potential connections to come to you. In this chapter, we’re going to explore how you can use traditional media—for instance, newspaper and magazine coverage—to do this, too.

Getting coverage in a media outlet—for example, by publishing an opinion piece in a newspaper or convincing a journalist to interview you—exposes you to an audience of thousands or sometimes millions of people. Some of these readers will be so impressed by your ideas that they want to hear more about them. They’ll reach out to you—and thus, a new connection is born.

How to Get Media Coverage

So how can you get media coverage? The simplest method is to follow these five steps:

Step 1: Decide what type of content you want to pitch and what topic you want to write about. For instance, do you want to write a prescient opinion piece on a current social issue? Do you want to be interviewed about your career so far? Do you want to write a short column on your area of expertise?

To increase the chances that your idea gets accepted for publication, make it original. For example, approach an old issue from a new angle, or discuss...

Never Eat Alone Summary Part 3: Maintain Your Network │ Chapter 8: Keep Relationships Strong

In this final part of the summary, we’ll discuss how to maintain your professional network. Specifically, we’ll discuss two things you need to do to keep your relationships strong: following up with your contacts and looking for ways to help them.

Follow Up

“Following up” with members of your professional network means regularly checking in with them, either by phone, by email, or in person. The conversation or meeting may involve:

• Asking the contact for updates on their personal and professional life, and telling them what’s been going on with you
• Discussing commitments made in a previous meeting (for instance, discussing the details of an investment opportunity you’ve agreed to)
• Simply enjoying each other’s company

Following up with your contacts is crucial to keeping your relationships strong for two reasons. First, frequently reaching out to your existing contacts shows that you care about them: You clearly want to spend time with them and hear all about their recent endeavors. You wouldn’t make such an effort to contact them if you didn’t. People are more likely to continue relationships that make them feel appreciated.

**Second, if you...

Shortform Exercise: Analyze Your Follow-Up Technique

Following up with your contacts makes them feel appreciated and reminds them of your existence.

Think of a time when you met a new contact for the first time. What format did the meeting take? Why did you want to connect with this person?