When I was around 15 I remembered hustling the streets in my terrible health conditions to make a living. I have a group of friends with who we sketched together and got some random strangers to pay us some tokens for these sketches. Some of these people around me weren't needy, they just loved doing crafty things to make money on their own.
As a child, it was bliss to be able to brag about making my own money, but I'm my case, I needed the money. I was a writer, though amateurish it was surprising that I had people who offered to pay to read what I wrote. (I went on to become a paid gigger, in my early 20s, writing for some websites while working part-time as well) I could create sketches.
imagine if I honed that skill well enough and monetized them when NFT became a thing in 2021
But no, I didn't?
I was even helping some random architects to make architectural designs and he was paying me, I was 15 at that time and even if they exploited me, I was quite happy to create a certain relevance, I never saw it as exploitation, I felt I was paying it forward and a time would come when they'd also pay their forward. It was a "give and take" situation but I was happy I was actually giving instead of taking alone.
People who take alone are never seen as valuable, you have to somehow take what you've been given, recycle it back, and offer it in another dimension
Do you take alone even if you could give?
This is often needed in joint partnerships. There was a time I helped my boss who was an actor to screenplay his script for a movie he did back then, it was my first time and he used that screenplay for that movie. Even if he didn't pay me, it created an impression that apart from the job that he employed me to do, I could serve other purposes, and this cemented my position.
Surviving The Rat Race Is No Mean Feat
The truth was that it wasn't my abilities to do these things that made these people pay me for the craft I offered, it was my ability to show them how relevant I could be to them in whatever futuristic project they wanted to build. Nigeria is a country where you need to prove that you're not surplus to requirements, in other to stay in a job, the rat race and competition made it so.
To be honest, a lot of people underestimate networking. They fail to understand that this is a skill that is vital to building valid connections, that help you grow your craft. When I registered on Facebook in 2011 as a teenager, I wasn't there to socialize, but I knew I needed the right interactive skills.
The truth is that you cannot seek to be envalued if you do not ooze of any value
How bad is this for impression?
Some people want others to vest in them and they do not create that scenic impression that such a business relationship would be symbiotic. While I was doing my writing gigs, I had to accept to be paid a ridiculously low amount of money, not because I didn't know my worth. What I wanted to do was to create the perfect economies of scale, earning lesser per unit, but earning more for having more recommendations from people who I accepted to be paid less.
So to these people, they were happy to recommend me, even if I was offering a fringe skill and being paid for it, I knew that I had to create a perfect business relationship where I'll earn more in the future, but give the people I'm servicing more value for their money than they'll get anywhere else.
This is a way to network, creating a social construct of symbiotic value that will improve your craft in all ramification
This is the same with being in a place like hive.
Now, adding value on hive isn't static but if you're not then it becomes difficult. Now, it's quite easy to add value on hive, and one of the reasons why people think it's difficult is because they feel that having a stake is the only way, but this isn't true.
The inability to read what sells, tap into the social construct and see what's sellable in others to see if they can add this. I see people who text me on discord, out of the blue, seeking how to build their hive-based project from scratch. But the thing is that they've not even started from anywhere, they've not built anything, had no prior networking affiliation that could warrant them to ask for what they're asking for.
It's crazy that in such a blockchain social space where people can practically build things, by paying attention they find it difficult. In this 21st century internet, I found out that talking is a skill, it might be fringe, but it's through creating the right conversational pitch that things are achieved. A lot of people are shy of building real networks that will extend beyond the whims of the blockchain and due to this, they just find it difficult to grow.
The internet is an industry where virtually anything is possible
if we extend that to hive, we'd realize that beyond the technology that powers the blockchain, people have the power to build wealth, jobs, skills, partnerships, and a whole lot of other things, but I just believe we have people who haven't tested the capacity of hive, because they see it as only a space for content creation, which limits their capacity and what they can achieve here.
I've seen people make me proposals that are outrageous and when I look at the base layer of these proposals, I find out that these people are not building anything that could envalue the people they're trying to partner with. At the same time, I've built real-time business ideas with people I've met here which transcend beyond what hive even offers, when people test the capacity of hive, they'll realize a lot of things are achievable with hive, but they're not just building anything on their own.
Hive works like real life
people can come together to create social affiliation that could lead to brilliant business ideas, but some people are not understanding the importance of proper networking prospects. One of the things that are important in a social space, is to build a unique persona, create an interaction that can expand your concept, and see beyond what you might achieve at the moment. Economies of scale, still apply, even on hive.
Interested in some more of my works?
How To Be "THE" Content Creator You Always Desire
The Consequences Of Being Overly Assumptive About Money
A 1.6 Million Naira Use-case For iPhone 14
Free Money: What Will You Do With $216k Worth Of Crypto In Your Wallet? (2)
The 4 Ways Of Developing A Relevant Niche As A Content Creator
Tech & Gadget Sophistication; Picture & Aesthetics
One thing I have realized in life is that you are quickly known when you give than when you take alone. Another thing about me is that I feel bad when I take something because I have always give to the extent that I am used to it and this in a way announces me.
I know the power behind networking and when you mingle with people, giving a service you aren't expecting huge amount of money from, some day, you will have a lot of people around you through recommendations and this is something we should always work towards.
If we must succeed, we have to do our part by interacting and building our networks and from there, we start to earn big.
It's just like attaining economies of scale. Getting little per unit but getting enough recommendations that could eventually push you up. I think we must balance the scale between giving and taking because we need to be the two to eventually ooze of value. I tell people that money is just the pawn in the game and eventually there are things that matters more and that is that relationship that transcends into real life value.
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Absolutely correct.
Our various experience through life drives us to the target point. Some people fail to know the basics in building a long lasting business relationship, some relationship aren't just for the gain. Well, the recommendations you got was because you created a good relationship with them by making your worth affordable. They get confident telling others because they know you won't disappoint.
You're right, also it depends on what you define as gain. Getting good recommendation and tightening a business relationship is even great gains if you ask me. But then I think we have to even properly define gain and what it represents.
Yeah!!!
Depends on what we define as gain...
Looking at it in the perspective of financial gain, I will say the immediate financial profit. Though everyone is at the course of making money, hereby making profit is sure, but the one at which your value is pecked at a high rate from start may not establish good business relationship.
Networking is very important and I didn't network as much as I could when I was younger. I just wanted to play and do what I want (mainly as a consumer). It definitely hurt when I started going to college and I didn't really socialize that much. In a way, I do regret that a little bit and I am glad that I started socializing here more on Hive. I was about to give up at one point but I saw task mention about commenting and then going back to talk. In the end, it did work out and I am still engaging as part of the community now.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Well, I believe networking is a skill sometimes I believe we can learn it, sometimes I believe there are people who are born with it as a gift. I'm happy it eventually clicked for you, the way it became a thing on hive as you became famous for it..
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
Networking is key. This is why it translates to engagement on Hive. If we do not build those connections, it doesn't matter how we know and what we can do, we will always be limited because no one really knows about us.. so we have to learn to network and build symbiotic relationship.
Networking is even beyond engagement, it's like creating relevance that last long especially by putting value in place, allowing this value transcend from the chain into real life situations. It's sophisticated, but you're right.
Networking is really important especially in an increasingly soft skills reliant world. Soft skills reliant in a sense that your character and the connections you build becomes more important that what you actually know. I suck at it in the beginning because networking requires stepping out of your comfort zone and frankly, many people aren't willing to do that.
Well in the social spaces that we occupy, I think comfortable zones will cripple our ability to Market ourselves. Like you said, it's a soft skill, but it takes a lot to really build it. But it eventually pays because it's relevant in the world we live in.
Networking is essential because it helps to build even your own personal skills aside from other diverse skills. Through it you can build social connection to grow your self.
That is true
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Been able to network is very important because it helps you get connected
Doesn't matter what you have to offer, if you fail to network, in reality you have nothing to offer
Growth comes with networking