Schmoozing

There were two pieces of that local news segment that bothered me ...

It called networking "the big schmooze".

What a word... sounds slimy on your tongue... has a root of "ooze"... implies a complete lack of sincerity.

No wonder folks shy away from the concept.

They did enforce doing your networking early and often, building a community well before you might have to call upon it. Can't disagree with that.

But it was all proposed within a context of self-interest. And, I'm hoping since you're on this blog, that you agree with me that networking from that standpoint is true schmoozing. Oozy, insincere and slimy.

Similar circles - a true personal community built from overlapping networks - serves all its members. We all contribute to and we all use the support. (See Oct post - Peer to Peer and Dec - Networking, how not to) We're not schmoozing; we're living our lives and including new folks along the way.