Career Advice

By Rick Frishman

It Gets Easier

Believe it or not, with practice, following up gets easier; it even gets to be routine and second nature. As you become more proficient, you'll find that important contacts respect professionalism and prefer to deal with professionals because they know that they can usually rely upon professionals. So when you follow up in a well-planned, disciplined and timely fashion, important contacts might be more willing to deal with you.

Benefits from following up also spill over to other facets of your life. They teach you patience, understanding and diplomacy. They give you a better idea how to plan, position yourself, wait your turn and seize opportunities. Following up isn't just persistence, although you must be persistent, it's being considerate, respectful and wise. It's treating people as you wish to be treated - - - just like networking.

On occasions, you'll get lucky. Everybody will ask you to lunch, invite you to their club and introduce you to their A List members. On these lucky streaks, nothing will go wrong and you will be the toast of the town, the "flavor of the month," the person most in demand, with whom everyone wants to be associated. Treat those times with reverence, appreciate your good fortune and realize that they're probably just a temporary phenomena - - - special, fleeting moments.

When you're on top, leverage your success by treating everyone well. Share your success by being magnanimous. Be kind, understanding, gracious and generous. Help whoever needs help - - - whether or not they ask, look for opportunities to help. Apply your good fortune, your moment in the sun, to give generously to others.