There seems to be a direct relationship between the number of people you know, meet, bump into and interact with and the quality of your life. People who network on a regular basis with others, seem to be far more active and successful than people who go to work at the last minute, chat idly with coworkers, read the newspaper, make a couple sales calls-and then go home and watch television.

Warren Buffett applied to Columbia University and was turned down. He turned to Princeton University and most of the courses that he wanted to take were already full. Finally, he settled on one course taught by a Professor Fisher on value investing.

Because he was young and impressionable, Warren Buffett absorbed Fisher's ideas on how to choose stocks for the long term, went back to Omaha, and began investing others and himself. The rest is history. Warren Buffett is now one of the richest men in the history of the world, still applying Fisher's ideas to buying and holding good quality stocks.

Sometimes a single observation or bit of advice from someone with more experience in a particular area than you can change the course of your destiny.

Success is on the Law of Probabilities. This law says that there is a probability that everything can happen, and that you can influence these probabilities by doing more of the things that are more likely to lead to your success.

In sales, the sales person who makes more appointments and sees more prospects is going to make more sales than the sales person who stays in the office and shuffles his or her business cards. In life, the professional who networks regularly with other professionals, especially in sales, is going to dramatically increase the probability that he or she will meet with the right person, at the right time, with the right insight or guidance, which will lead to a sale that might not have taken place.

The challenge is that you never know which person you meet is going to be the one that helps you the most. Using the Law of Probabilities, you organize your life so that you network and meet with as many people as possible. This greatly increases the likelihood that you will meet the right person.

At every stage of your life, there will be someone standing there giving you insights and guidance that can set you off in a different direction. At the same time, you can be the person who gives the insights and guidance that helps others to do more of the right things that help them achieve their goals and improve their lives.

Networking is one of the most certain ways of meeting more and better people who can help you to achieve higher levels of success-faster than would have ever been possible in the absence of their ideas and input.

Wishing you many happy returns,

Dr. Wayne T. Essex