Using Your Network to Create Profits

The next time you button your shirt or pull on a jacket, you might pause and revel at the inspirational moment of genius that enabled human beings to create clothes. It was the invention of the needle. Around 40,000 years ago in the Paleolithic age, human beings first used notched bones as sewing needles. Suddenly, instead of adapting themselves to the skins they tanned from animals, humans could make garments that were adapted to them. Needles are still used in virtually every garment today, though the results are quite different. Something similar to that life-changing technological advancement is happening today. A scant few years ago, when a coherent email message first traveled over the internet, no one dreamed of what it would become. No one conceived of what is now your own personal network. Here are some insights that may stir innovative ideas within you about how to monetize your internet.

Step Up to 5G

Of course, digital users all know the importance of keeping up with tech. Keeping up with 5G, however, is a different story altogether. It is speculated that the advent of 5G broadband will be as revolutionary to the internet age as the internet itself was for global communications. Today's extant 5G applications are the bare beginnings of the coming wave. When 5G becomes the default broadband of internet users, miraculous applications will emerge. To participate in this evolutionary period as a player, it will be necessary for you to upgrade your business support system (BSS) through digital BSS transformation, which will essentially translate 5G into a usable platform for your work.

Inject Integrity Into Every Interaction

While it is impossible to talk about 5G and the internet without getting caught up in the technical aspects of it, it is interesting to note that many experts describe 5G broadband in terms of the human potential it can address. Writing for Forbes, Julie Schroeder created an ironic list of the most important elements involved in monetizing 5G. All of them were focused on using the latest tech tools to reinforce your integrity as a person first and a businessperson second:

  • Achieve and maintain contact. Networks are like living vines, either thriving or withering, in most cases through inattention.
  • Be genuine in your online relationships. This is characterized by honesty, caring and openness. Others trust those in whom they sense integrity.
  • Work to understand what you need from people and learn how to ask for it.
  • Give away what you are not going to charge for. This means, do not hesitate to offer your insight when it is welcomed, especially by colleagues who are struggling.

Develop Your Relationships

Building upon the idea of acting with integrity in all your business relationships is the notion of delving deeper into those relationships to see what veins of possibility may exist. As Oksana Tashakova recently wrote for Entrepreneur, “Every intelligent person involved in business knows to invest in money, but only the wise also invest in relationships." The article goes on to say that investing in your network relationships will grant you new personal satisfaction and confidence. This will give you the opportunity to surround yourself with positive, nurturing people who view things in a similar manner. From this, it is said, greater business opportunities will emerge.

Seek Partnerships

Of course, this does not imply that you should try to merge with other executives but rather that, from the relationships you are building and strengthening, you will be able to engage collaboratively with other entrepreneurs. Think of the people in your network with all their years of expertise, their keen intuition and their wisdom. Now imagine the free sharing of ideas of all these people with you.

Most often, when people discuss using their networks to build their careers, they think of specific strategies, of putting in the hours and being all business as you try to get ahead. Many thoughtful experts, however, respond that real monetization of the newly emerging internet will come from building frank, affirming relationships with others like yourself.

Related: 6 Ways To Turn Business Adversity Into a Step Forward