Ok, So Networking works. We all know this – If you go to a function, you meet someone and you can find equally beneficial value… or you just get along, you have networked and now you have a new contact.

But what about “internetworking” or “networking 2.0” or most commonly “Social Networking.” Here’s the simple truth… If you’re not doing it… Start Now!

It’s not going away! It’s like automatic road tolling, you can resist it all you want, but eventually the manual booths will and have gone – and the “I haven’t given you my credit card and have 3 days to pay system is terrible!”

Join Twitter and Linked In – These are the two best business tools for internetworking. Facebook is much more personal and myspace is for kids and bands. Linked In lets you easily manage the people you network in the real and the cyber world, and Twitter is the ultimate information spreading and receiving device.

So be cool, and retweet me.

Happy New Year and welcome to Twenty Ten!  Our second Millennia is entering into its Tweens and possibly one of its greatest learning phases through its teenage years.  As we develop into adults we often forget the frenetic pace that we had to learn things as children and adolescents.  Often it’s easier to just let life happen and not take control of it. 

When we were kids, we had to go to school to learn… Now we don’t. This is why, in our adult lives, we have to push ourselves to be better.  We must push ourselves to know more than our competitors, and be better at what we do than they are.  We also need to push ourselves to be able to have happier lives by doing things more efficiently or more effectively. We need to strive to be a positive influence on people around us and to ultimately reach our potential.

I wanted to take this opportunity to share some of the best developmental sites that I have come across on the internet and regularly refer to:

Ivan Miser Blog (Founder and Chairman of BNI) – Business Success and Networking

BNI Podcast – Business Networking and Referral

Ted Talks – Top speeches from some of the world’s most influential

Academic Earth -Top Lectures from Universities around the world

Philosophers Notes TV – A great resource about work /life harmony and life success.

There is no excuse to stop learning. If you want to, you can learn about anything and most commonly for free.  From this we can assume that the more we know the better informed our decision making process will be, and consequently the better the outcome.

So if there is anything that I can encourage you to do in Twenty Ten it is to saturate yourself in education and continually improve the person that you are both personally and professionally.  The resources available to you are free, cover almost everything and the opportunities are abundant.

Don’t wait for a promotion in Twenty Ten, strive for something that you want to do and create the opportunity.  Don’t accept mediocrity or the norm because its comfortable, consider what you really want out of life and strive for it – you’re never too old and you’re never too young!  Remember the more you know the better prepared you are for a situation…

“I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.” Winston Churchill

So go and Live it, Learn it and Love it!