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The Power of Being Different

Lesson 7: Identifying ways to maintain open lines with sources.

The best source to find answers to this topic is: Tom Peters.

In The Brand You 50 (1999) he comes up with a wide range of suggestions, from which we will present ten here (but there are many more!).

¯     (p. 158): point 7. Create a new habit: Visit your Rolodex. Once a month. Pick a name of someone interesting you've lost touch with. Take him/her to lunch--next week.

¯     (p. 158): point 9. New habit. You're in a meeting. Someone you don't know makes an interesting contribution. Invite him/her to lunch--in the next two weeks.

¯     (p. 158): point 12. Going out this Saturday night? Go some place new.

¯     (p. 158): point 13. Having a dinner party next Sunday? Invite somebody "interesting" you've never invited before. (Odds are, he/she won't accept. So what? Go for it. It's just like selling encyclopedias. No ring doorbell=No sale)

¯     (p. 159): point 16. At church this Sunday, the pastor announces a new fund drive. Sure you're busy. (Who isn't?) Go to the organizing meeting after services. Sign up!

¯     (p. 159): point19. You're really pissed off at what's going on in your kid's school. So run for the school board.

¯     (p. 159): point 21. An old college pal of yours invites you to go on a long weekend by the lake. You never do things like that. Go.

¯     (p. 161): point 39. Take the door off your office.

¯     (p. 162): point 41. Join Toastmasters.

¯     (p. 162): point 48. Call the wisest person you know. ( A fabulous professor you had 15 years ago?) Ask her/him to lunch. Ask her/him if he or she would be willing to sit with you for a couple of hours every quarter to talk about what you've done/ where you're going. (Try it. It can't hurt.)

Creativity self-test:

Think of 5 more ways to maintain open lines with your sources. Don't just write them down. Keep yourself to really doing them!!!

Time for: Lesson 8