Networking Is Dead - Christian Entrepreneur Do This Instead

If there was a personal silver lining around this whole pandemic is that I didn't have to go out to participate in networking events anymore!

I've always felt uncomfortable with the idea of trying to meet people for the sole purpose of personal gain. Still, I’ve reluctantly believed that I was missing out on opportunities to meet my 'big' client if I wasn't doing it.

Truthfully, networking actually makes me feel dirty. Then there's the pressure to drink alcohol as some social lubricant to get conversations going, and now I'm in the zone of moral impurity. So, I avoid networking events like the plague.

The world of business wants us to define success through the network we develop - the more relationships we can form, the more chances we have for personal advancement. There are entire books and podcasts dedicated to the art of growing our network.

As students at Cornell, we were lectured about networking in almost every business class. Then, we come out and got sales or business development jobs, and we were taught to race to one more boring party, so we can be seen and shake hands with someone that might be able to help us. It just doesn't feel right.

And networking on LinkedIn feels just as inauthentic. Inboxes are crowded with random people trying to seem personable, but we know they are trying to sell something.

It shouldn’t have to be this way.

There are serious problems with networking as a primary path to success - the biggest one being that networking kills authentic relationships.

For Christian entrepreneurs, networking contradicts the nature of God that is being cultivated within us. God's identity is centered on love. God gave sacrificially and generously, not for His own benefit.