In 2011 I left my life as a tech entrepreneur and began my work as a teacher, mentor, and impact investor. That change meant building a new network of contacts, and I started that effort with just a few dozen curated connections from the first twenty years of my career.
Ten years later, I’ve been keeping a CRM database of (almost) everyone I’ve met and today the 19,001st person was added.
Fittingly the 19,000th is a fellow builder of the impact ecosystem and in the same email was the 19,001st, another founder of another impact accelerator.
The analyst and mathematician in me want to do some math. 19,000 people in 10 years (really a few months less than that but close enough) is 1,900 people per year. 1,900 divided by 300 working days is 6 people per day.
6 people PER DAY!
No, I don’t spend every waking hour in Zoom or on the phone. There are a few thousand people on this list who have seen me speak, and if it was an event I created, you were added to the list. There are hundreds of entrepreneurs I’ve taught and dozens of investors too. Hundreds more I met at various conferences.
Most of the names are from email. If you email me and your work is relevant to mine, you are on this list. Same if you are introduced to me, which is why the post is 19,001, as the 19,000th and 19,001st were two introductions in a single email.
In any case, I highly suggest create your own networking list. It comes in handy many times per week. First and foremost because there is no way I can remember 19,000 people. But an hour ago I told someone we met in 2013 and named the place we met. He may think I’m a genius.
Maybe I am, but only because I keep good notes.
