The acquaintance collector

The de-humanising, people-are-a-network, business term for humans you know a little is a “weak tie”.

I prefer the word acquaintance. An acquaintance is a potential friend.

Because you’re a nice person, you’ve left a positive impression on this person. Maybe more than once. When you’re not in the room, you want an acquaintance to say “Yeah I know Geoff, he seems like a good dude”. People work with people they like or think they will like.

🚨 Compound alert!

You may have 50 in your weak ties network acquaintances. Each acquaintances may also have 50 acquaintances.

This means you have direct or indirect access to 2,500 people.

That’s 2,500 people with:

  • opportunities to offer.
  • skills to call upon.
  • diverse perspectives.
  • knowledge you don’t have.