Barrett Garese

re: networking

mimisaurus:

sharksgochomp:

Doesn’t it suck that, even if I had all the talent in the world, I’d still have to kiss ass and climb social ladders just to succeed? That, in the end, someone else born into a well-connected family will get paid more, get discovered faster, or get more praise?

You know, that pisses me off too. This is especially true for aspiring artists and stuff like that. If you don’t have the right kinds of connections, you’ll never get the good jobs.

you shouldn’t look at it that way. yeah, some people like to do the suck-dick-up-the-ladder thing, but fuck them. if you make it your own priority to seek out people who impress and interest you, not for bettering yourself or your career but just to reach out and meet new people, cool things happen.

‘networking’ can be going out for a few drinks with people you professionally respect and maybe even admire, for the exchange of good talk and good ideas. it can be a meetup of other people from the internet who like to do what you do. if you just take care of your shit, do it well, and be moderately social, ‘networking’ just sort of happens. if you actively try to ‘network’ with people that you meet, you will probably come off as a tool.

also, artists, don’t expect people to find or discover you. it’s on you to get your work out there and to get people to notice it. you have to give a little to get a little :)

If you expect people to just latch on to your genius, you’re going to fail, whether you’re a businessperson, an artist, or both. At the very least that’s just disrespectful to your audience. If you want people to give a shit, you have to hustle; that’s just a fact of life.

You don’t have those connections? Go out and make them. Stop wondering (or complaining about) where you stand on the social ladder and make yourself available, interesting, approachable, and worth paying attention to. Also understand that until you’re Trent Reznor or Barry Diller, that someone paying any sort of attention to you at all is a compliment in and of itself; so if for no other reason than respecting their commitment to you over the next few seconds, minutes, hours, or days, you damn sure better give them your best because you’re making an impression on them, good or bad.

Social ladders and relationships (the real kind, not the “we’ve only met when I commented on your Facebook wall” kind) matter, but the good news is that the only impediment to you being on equal ground is your own efforts to succeed. I work in an industry where art and commerce are very intertwined, and the fact is that who you know is very important. You can say with derision that “it’s not whether you’re good, but rather who you know” but the reality is that knowing people is very much based on whether you’re good.

No one is born with every connection, and even those who are born into many still have to prove themselves at some point. Yes, even Trent and Barry had to prove themselves before they became Trent and Barry. Their reputations were built on success and hard work, not just familial connections. In most businesses this rings very true, and worse than being unknown is being known as someone who only got to where they are now due to mommy and daddy.

So the bottom line is that all the talent in the world doesn’t mean anything without respect, diligence, and hard work. If you expect the “if you build it, they will come” ideals to work in the real world, I’m sorry to have to burst that bubble. If you are eager, willing, respectful, and hard-working - and can couple that with a bit of either natural or hard-earned talent - you’re going to be in a much better position.

Build your own social ladder based on you, the connections and relationships will be much stronger than a couple favors someone owes due to blood.

Source: sharksgochomp