The Reluctant Entrepreneur: Turning Dreams into Profits

NEVER PASS UP THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE A CONNECTION THAT CAN DO YOU SOME GOOD

Some years ago, I saw a play titled Six Degrees of Separation. It explored the idea that any two people are connected by no more than five other people. You know someone … who knows someone … who knows someone … and you never know where this might lead. So whenever you meet someone, take the time to explore the potential of that relationship.

I was reminded of the value of this on a business trip years ago. A friend and I were on our way back to the States after visiting a development project we’re involved with in Nicaragua.

While waiting for our flight, my friend struck up a conversation with three scruffy-looking men. These were not the sort of guys I’d expect us to have anything in common with. But they turned out to be two 40-something surfers and their dad. They were in Nicaragua to surf and to look at some property one of them had purchased that was about an hour’s drive from our development.

We swapped Nicaragua stories for a while. Then my friend told them about our development. They’d heard of it. They had read about it in an article published in Surf Express magazine. One of them said he wanted to talk to us about opening a restaurant on our property. (He was already a restaurant owner in Tampa.) He was also interested in helping us develop a marina. (He owned one of those too.)

Who would have thought?

And this potentially lucrative connection was entirely due to my friend, who ignored their ...