I was talking to a colleague the other day about my entrance into the world of networking many years ago. The theme of our conversation was that no one had taught either of us how. We just jumped in and figured out how to make it work. Of course, I was lucky to have the master networker as my mentor (you all know who I am talking about!) but not everyone has that same fortune. And the concept doesn’t come naturally to everyone.

We then started talking about the basics of networking – what makes it work and what makes it fail.

The condensed version of my answer was that successful networking is about getting to know someone, listening well and asking the question “how can I help you?” with the genuine intent to do so. 

What is your answer? What makes networking work and what makes it fail?