Years ago a friend of mine was telling me about someone he knew and how he went about finding women to be with. I remember as a young man listening, waiting for some great secret to building relationships. This is how the story goes:
“He goes to a bar and asks every woman in the place if she’ll sleep with him. He usually gets slapped, drinks spilled on him, but by the end of the evening he always ends up with someone.”
So, I’m looking at him in astonishment and not at his so called ’success’.
Why am I writing about this now? Because tonight I was on facebook and I received yet another invitation to go this networking event that includes entrepreneurs and corporate professionals. When I looked at the group’s postings and the individuals that belong to it, it is obvious that is a network marketing organization. I couldn’t find one ‘professional’ anywhere in the group. Then I thought, why would they invite me to join this group as I don’t belong to a network marketing organization and am pretty much tied up with my professional career.
Hence the flashback to the story of the man who went around asking any woman if she’d sleep with him. Who knows, maybe he was also asking a few men as well. It’s not as though he was being very selective is it? Same thing with the invitation I got, obviously the person doing the invitation didn’t take the time to find the right individuals for their event, or maybe its impossible to have a networking event just for network marketing individuals - I mean who will they sell to…themselves?
Which brings me to another point, are they putting on a networking event or a sales event?
Ironically, minutes later I receive another invitation to some movie showing during The Toronto International Film Festival. My friend was all excited over this. Having worked with TIFF over the years I decided to look into the event and the organizers. Well, turns out it is not a ‘TIFF’ event, nor is it located in any of the TIFF venues. It is some real estate agent that is trying to promote his services by putting on so called social and networking events. He’s actually done a number of these and each time it turns out to be a sales pitch. Come to my party and let me sell you a condo…or something like that. Only he doesn’t tell you that’s what he’s trying to do.
Look, if you want to build a relationship with me then lets build a relationship. If you want to sell me something, let me come to you when I’m ready. But then again, what better way to make parties tax deductible than to run them through your marketing budget.
I guess that at the end of the day if our friend asks enough people to buy a condo, someone eventually will. Whether they can afford it or its right for them is another story…well isn’t that what’s put the world economy in the mess we’re in now to begin with?
Nonetheless, I’m planning to go with my friend to this event and will let you know how it goes. And no, I won’t be buying a condo, primarily because the condo market continues to drop like a rock in Toronto. Refer to my previous real estate postings for an explanation of what’s happening.