Don’t Hoard Information
One thing that I think is detrimental to anyone’s career, is hoarding information. If someone needs information, give it to them (with this rule of exception: if you think they are going to at least attempt to use it. Ain’t nobody got time for that!)
What people fail to understand, successful networking is built on reciprocity. Helping people in small ways can help score big in the future. By opening a door for somebody else, that same person might be able to do the same for you. This also gives you an opportunity to build a relationship and have access to everybody they know.
Why wouldn’t you want to put yourself in that position?
Don’t be a hoarder, share with love.
Being An Asshole
Something worse than being an information hoarder is an asshole. I’m baffled by the amount of people in the world, who are fine with building ugly reputations. These are the people who will make your life miserable for no reason, treat you like you’re beneath them, talk behind your back and etc.
Nonetheless, let’s talk about all the potential things that could happen. A person like this could lose future partnerships, friendships, and etc. Everything you do in your professional career, will brand who you are. You piss off people and treat them badly someone will gossip. Worst case scenario, you might cross somebody who’s a blabber mouth, a person who might have almost no integrity, perhaps a little immature, who’d openly tell the whole world of how much of an asshole you are on national TV or big time radio.
I don’t want that for myself. I don’t think you want this for yourself either. Don’t be an asshole.
Know the Consequences of Your Action & Don’t Burn Bridges
Once I was dealing with a producer who sent out a threatening email, one full of expletives, whom CC’d to my manager (well he’s more my mentor aka my de facto manager.) However, in a sudden twist of fate, he reaches out to me soon after looking for help.
I laughed and joked about it because there was no way on heaven’s green Earth I was going to help him out. He really ticked me off to the point, I really wanted to do nothing with him. He did something similar to other people, they did the same as I in response. In essence, producer X lost access to a network of hundreds or even thousands of people because of his stank attitude.
Moral of the story -don’t become like this guy!
