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In The Media

Accelerated Networking for Champions

by Larry Chiang on September 20, 2013

By Larry Chiang 
 
This article is written for people that do not like to network!
 
Majority of networking functions are gross but seen as a “necessary evil”. I engineer out the evil with this blog post
 
When I say ‘Accelerated Networking for Champions’, I mean super fast connections with people who will champion you. You, the engineer. You, the pre entrepreneur. You the jobapreneur. It’s the same use of champion as Dan Shipper’s blog post https://bit.ly/dshipper711.
 
Ideally, hone in on reducing risk for superstar mentors. A superstar mentor is defined as a name brand entity that accelerates you with knowledge, guidance and air traffic controls you towards your goal. Super star mentors are great at pattern recognition. Super star mentors are very risk adverse. This means that they will not take a chance on you. You will have to mitigate their risk, thus increasing the likelihood of their mentoring us.
 
In numerous tech blog posts here, HERE HERE HERE AND HERE…, Ive presented mentee-ship in a manner that puts a method to the madness
 
Mentorship will appear to seemingly have zero structure.
 
The attempt to establish structure, in the mentee’s mind, reduces our likelihood to get mentored by a superstar mentor. For example, pattern recognition is something that older people do great with. They intuitively see patterns. What an old person lacks in technology know-how, they make up for with intuitive pattern recognition.
 
For example, VCs are typically good pattern recognition people. Notoriously, they have horrible domain experience and tech knowledge. 
 
Embracing this street smart, zero structure format is important if we as undergrad engineers want to “Acceleratedly Network to Search for Champions (of us and our efforts)”.
 
Do you like how I weave in the title of this article to focus you back on the intention of my blog post??!
 
Ok, here is the climax of my article.
 
Set aside pattern recognition and “structure” and academic ghost concepts by delegating pattern recognition to your mentor. As mentee’s, we should 
– pattern iterate
– pattern replicate
 
We as mentee’s should not pattern recognize because slowing down to understand and put structure around it slows us down.
 
All together now
– Pattern Recognition (we delegate )
– Pattern Iterate ( we do )
– Pattern Replicate (we do )
 
This is what I did when I was mentored by my mentor, Mark McCormack. Essentially, he “air traffic controlled” me. The true way to move fast is to execute now. Learn later. Put a structure to it later. Act now.
 
This helps me: execute more
 
Another example (and examples abound for “delegating pattern recognition to our mentor where-we-pattern-replicate-and-pattern-iterate)… is actually where a mentee fails to get “Air Traffic Controlled”. It is in a movie called BOURNE ULTIMATUM. 
 
At the 21:32 mark to 26:20 mark, a journalist gets air traffic controlled by the spy, Jason Bourne (played by Matt Damon). The journalist becomes a super spy until he, the mentee, attempts to pattern recognize.
 
The mentee Journalist pattern recognizes incorrectly and it leads to his demise. The journalist argues with his superstar mentor, Jason Bourne. The journalist thinks a janitor is a hit man. The journalist’s mentor tells him the janitor is not an assassin REPEATEDLY.
 
Journalist deviates from a safe location and gets assassinated.
 
Journalist had already determined that Jason Bourne was a super spy via his research and a talented secret agent-spy in the field. The journalist was already getting mentored by a spy. The journalist was in the midst of a fast-moving clandestine meeting (acting like a spy, doing spy work, collecting spy intelligence) but failed to accept superstar pattern recognition.
 
🙁
 
This post is in my effort to, in-effect, start the GitHub-ification of mainstream networking and accelerated networking by closing for a mentor via (eek!) Jedi business tools like voicemail, parties, USPS, and conferences
 
This is a sequel post to about 3 previous GigaOm posts

More on
– Pattern Recognition ( #PRPRPI)
– Pattern Iterate ( #PRPRPI )
– Pattern Replicate ( #PRPRPI )
 
#PRPRPI has a structure to teach street smarts in a classroom
 
It’s in a video that people seem to like ok
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