Maybe you remember the old pick-up line "What's your sign?" ...

I'm just the right age to remember tongue-in-cheek jokes and parodies about that line on tv shows like "Love Boat" and "Fantasy Island".  And I know I'm dating myself just by mentioning those ;-)

Goes to show how long words that are meant to help us network can stick around.

What I have to wonder though is --- did it ever really work? 

I dunno, I just have this memory ingrained in my head of some guy in a bar or at a crowded party, sliming up to 'the target' and making a fool of himself.

Always seemed sort of .. well .. stupid.  What's a person's sign really tell anyone who would use such a line to connect anyway? 

It's esoteric information at best.  Reserved for the totally goofy and die-hard students of astrology.

Truly, for the rest of us it's one of those "just smile and nod" tidbits.

But still, we need to start 'knowing' the people we want to network with somehow, right? 

Maybe a better piece of information would be "What's your color?"

And no, I'm not talking skin color here -- that would be obvious enough, and tell us nothing of the person. 

But what if 'color' could represent our different personalities?

And what if learning to listen to people could help us to understand what dominant personality they have and allow us to "meet them at their comfort level" in such things as -- well -- what to talk about in the first place?

See, the best kind of networking is all about the other person.

Period.

Without agenda or pre-conceived notions about where knowing them might go.

Sure, it's okay to put yourself in circles that are more likely to reap what you want to sow, but once you're there, you have to be genuinely interested in the other guy.

Both for your long-term success and for your personal sanity.

When you're enjoying learning about the people you're with, it's not about work anymore, it's about building and maintaining relationships first  and always -- and the business flows from there.

You can learn more about Color Networking Technology here.

Enjoy!

PS. In case you're wondering -- I'm mostly green with a pinch of blue and a hint of yellow. What color are you?