The Power of Networking: What It Is, What It is For, and a Real Example That Changed My Life

What is networking?

Networking is the conscious process of building and activating social capital: trust-based relationships that allow us to access information, skills, resources, and extended networks from other people in order to achieve goals that would be far more difficult to accomplish individually.

It is not about “important contacts,” but about real people with real dreams—and our genuine willingness to share, collaborate, and support one another.

What is social capital and why is it so powerful?

I define social capital as the ability to access, through other people, resources that we do not directly control: information, skills, talents, experiences, and connections.

It is powerful because it expands what we can achieve without relying solely on individual effort. Many times we believe we lack resources. In reality, what we lack is a network that enables them—or the right conversations.

What is networking for?

Every achievement depends on others. Networking is not an accessory to a professional career; it is a central lever for:

• Opening doors that a résumé cannot open.
• Accessing opportunities that are never publicly posted.
• Learning faster by leveraging other people’s experience.
• Multiplying our impact by helping others go further.

In my experience, networking is fundamentally about no longer walking alone. We were taught to achieve everything through “personal merit,” as if asking for help were a weakness. I learned that it is exactly the opposite.

A networking example that changed my life

In November 2013, while pursuing a postgraduate program at Kellogg School of Management, I attended a class by Professor Brian Uzzi on networking. That class was transformative.

He proposed a simple exercise: each person shared a deep personal dream. Then the rest of the group explored how they could help.

What happened was revealing.
Dreams that seemed distant for one person
were surprisingly easy for another to enable
with an idea, a contact, or a conversation.

That day I understood something essential: others hold the keys to making a real difference in our dreams—and we hold the keys to theirs. The problem is that we rarely say those dreams out loud.

That exercise left me with three lessons that shaped my career:

• We all have a deep dream that we usually keep to ourselves.
• We try to reach it alone, accumulating achievement after achievement.
• Many dreams may be just one conversation away.

The coffee experiment: networking in action

I left that class deeply moved. I didn’t have a plan, but I had certainty: I had to do something with that insight.

I committed to a simple experiment: having one coffee per day with a different person.

In every meeting, I did three things:

I shared the story of the class. I asked questions and listened deeply.
I always closed with the same sentence:

“There must be something that is easy for me to do and that would make a big difference for you. How can I help?”

No business cards. No pitch. No expectations. Just offering value.

The answers were always related to business: “I want to start a company,” “I want to scale my venture,” “I want to launch a product,” “I want to value my company.”

I began dedicating hours every day to helping, asking nothing in return.

Four months later, two of those entrepreneurial teams offered me 20% of their companies and invited me to join as a partner. That was the beginning of something much bigger than I had imagined: Scalabl®, today a global community present in more than 50 countries.

The achievement formula and the role of social capital

In my first TEDx talk, I summarized this idea in a simple formula:

Achievements = (Skills + Resources) × Perseverance × Social Capital

If any of these factors equals zero, achievements become impossible.

This formula is also a way to think strategically. When something is not moving forward, it is possible to work on one of these factors. Many times we think the problem is a lack of resources, when in fact what can be developed is social capital.

Practical tools to start networking today

Here is my question (it is powerful):
“What can I do that would be easy for me and make a big difference for you?”

• Schedule coffees with no expectations—just to listen, connect, and build relationships.
• Give first, without expecting anything in return—whatever is easy for you and meaningful for others.
• Follow up on relationships. Deliver on what you promise. Avoid being transactional.
• Share your dreams out loud.
• And above all: cultivate relationships—do not accumulate contacts.

Networking requires consistency. Social capital grows over time.

What if your next achievement were just one conversation away?

I invite you to choose an important dream.
Think about the sequence of achievements you believe you need to reach it.

And now ask yourself:

What if that dream were just one conversation away? Share your dreams and activate the multiplying power of your network.