The Genius of Audacity - Ch 5 of Never Eat Alone

April 2nd, 2007 by digerati

This is Chapter 5 of the Never Eat Alone series at Catch a Gideon. Points from Mr. Ferrazzi are in bold. I’m asking that you react to the quotes through comments. Share you reaction to each as well as your experiences in college and the real world

I remind myself how people with a low tolerance for risk whose behavior is guided by fear, have a low propensity for success.

Trying is the first step toward success. Never trying means never succeeding, guaranteed. Taking risks gets you out there to learn new things, even when you don’t succeed.

Mustering the audacity to talk with people who don’t know me often simply comes down to balancing the fear I have of embarrassment against the fear of failure and its repercussions. For me I either ask or I am not successful. That fear always overrides my anxiety about rejection or being embarrassed.

I guess maybe he’s saying that most people are more afraid of success than they are of failure. Perhaps people don’t expect to succeed and so if they were to, they would be embarrassed not to know the next step. Get over this, and see the first point,

Find a role model, we need someone to unconsciously affirm our own behaviors.

Can’t say that I have a role model, but it would probably help me focus on certain areas at a time instead of being “generally focused,” if that makes any sense.

Learn to speak.

Speaking is one of the most important skills you can have. Speaking means being able to converse with a small group or one-on-one as well as speaking in front of a group. People are impressed when you can speak well in front of an audience because most people can’t do it with focus and without being nervous.

———-

Never Eat Alone is one of the best networking books written, period. Buy it now and follow along as Catch a Gideon goes through each chapter of the book.