See your Career as a Product

best examples are people who’ve spent time building skills & expertise, and then can build the network instantly, versus the people who build their network first, and then try to bolt skills / expertise on top.

Optimizing on building your network before having a rare & valuable skill/knowledge base is like focusing on growth before product-market fit. Nail the product first.

networks are heat-seeking missiles for value. Provide the value, and the network is there.

do find your tribe of collaborators and go deep with a handful, involving them in the value building process — developing skills, building something together, etc.)

When it comes to network building, most people make the mistake of focusing on brand awareness, instead of expertise. They focus too much on the “legible” side of things, rather than knowledge and skills.

You’ll need the “minimum viable money” to keep going and not have to take a job that doesn’t increase your specialized knowledge & skills. You’ll want the “minimum viable network”, to know the right people to help, and the “minimum viable legibility (reputation)” to get them to care.

Knowledge and skills is another great loop to attract the other loops. Unique network access and strength? Knowledge and skills allows you to build this as well. Specialized knowledge and skills makes brand legibility much easier too.

Respect — this is a loop that most enables other loops, but you can't go after it directly.

It is yet (yet!) another thing to be well *respected* among these strategic networks — as in, they not only like you, they deeply respect you and would, say, let you invest in their company at better terms, pay you for your expertise, or some other metaphorical equivalent.