I am one of those lucky 55 year old’s that are still blessed to have their mother and father around.  My parents, Ralph and Teme Tash, came to town last Friday for my youngest son’s (Daveed) graduation from New Trier, so my children and I are busy spending time with them.

Today I got together with my dad and asked him about his business and personal success in life in regard to networking.  It was a fascinating story because he did not call it networking in the 40’s, 50’s, or 60’s.  He called it good business sense.  To make a long story short, my father feels the most important success strategy that he has used is the art of listening.  Of course having a good reputation, and more importantly, people knowing his good reputation helped, but by listening to people he learned business success.

It was such a pleasure connecting with my dad on the “resources” he had in the wholesale/distributor business, and we now use the term as “Power Partners”.  He joined organizations to further his career, but got involved with each organization.  THAT is what we should all be doing in furthering our careers.

Whether we call it relationship building, relationship networking, business networking, connecting, or my new term, “Boomerang Networking”, the success of your business and personal lives is dependent on the relationships you build and maintain.  It is not the quantity, it is the quality.

Thank you dad for the great conversation today.