Being sick has its advantages, since I have to lie in bed more often and can’t move around much nor get out, I have more time to read.
I am reading “The Starfish and the Spider”, a book by two Stanford alumni cum serial entrepreneurs, Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom. They also have a website here. It was a book I first came into contact from Noah Kagan some months back but you know, I have a huge backlog of reading I seriously need to catch up on (but not fall sick doing it).
I haven’t finished the book, but something I read roused me into blogging. Its about Auren Hoffman and why he’s a catalyst. Before I go into what a catalyst is, I need to explain what the book is about. The book is really about leaderless, decentralized decision-making and unstructured organizations versus centralized, top-down and hierarchical organizations. The former is likened to a starfish, which has 5 legs all of which have a full set of organs enabling each severed leg to survive on its own. Unlike the latter kind of centralized organizations, which is likened to a spider, a starfish does not die even if you chop it up. But a spider dies because it has a central command body the head. Destroy that and the whole organism is kaput. Try finding the central command of a starfish, if you do, perhaps you might beat legions of unsuccessful scientists and win some Nobel Prize.
The catalyst is characterized as a person that forms one of 5 legs of a “starfish” aka leaderless organization. (Catalysts are commonly used in chemistry where they speed up chemical reactions without getting used up in the reaction itself.) I realize I am a catalyst after reading this:
“Companies hire Auren because he’s able to navigate complex social networks. Auren constantly maps relationships in a way that is nearly impossible for most people. “A lot of people that you want to meet are not direct revenue relationships”, he explained. “You might want to meet someone who’s not necessarily a customer, say, but who might introduce you to customers. Or it could be someone who becomes a customer 3 or 4 years down the road.”
For Auren, making introductions is intuitive. If most of us started thinking about all the people we know, trying to figure who might benefit from knowing whom and how we could introduce them, we’d quickly get a headache. But for Auren,. it comes naturally: “The thing I do when I meet someone is make a map: you went to school at Berkeley, so… you must know so-and-so. I always make that map every time I meet somebody.” It takes a specialist like Auren to not only map people but use the map to make strategic introductions between the right individuals. He described a typical scenario: “So I say, ‘Bob, you should meet Jane. You should grab lunch. You should meet up.’ Before I do that, I will check in with Jane: ‘Jane, are you interested in an introduction to Bob’s company?’” What’s amazing is that everyone involved in the interaction ends up being grateful to Auren. If he does his job right, Bob benefits from meeting Jane; Jane, in turn, will have gained from meeting Bob. Auren makes the introductions, helps people connect, and then, in typical catalyst fashion, gets out of the way…
…The thing about Auren is that he is genuinely interested in helping people. “It does take a certain personality”, he said of the catalyst, “someone who like to help people. Lots of people just know a lot of people.” A catalyst, on the other hand, is “someone who every time they have a conversation, they’re actively thinking, How can I help this person? Who can I introduce this person to? O just want to help this person, I just want to make this person better. People really, really want to help other people. And thats the most underutilized tool there is”. Auren doesn’t get paid for the vast majority of the connections he makes, and he certainly doesn’t have an internal balance sheet reflecting whom he’s helped and who owes him one.
So now you know my little secret. I am not as good as Auren of course, he started a really successful tech company while I don’t. But reading these paragraphs is like reading my own thoughts.
I understand the importance of networking and I can pull networks of people I already know and make quick connections with new people I meet and insert them into the relevant positions. I dun have a map like Auren, I dun think that way, it just happens based on pure recall, just like how I can memorize phone numbers after I have dialled it twice. But I suck at shorter birthdays. I am still trying to understand how the brain works still so yes, neurochemistry or how the brain works is one field I retain particular interest for.
But I dun network with the intention of soliciting future benefits from people. No, I don’t. I never keep active tracks of who I help and who really gained with the intention of calling upon those favors in future. That is calculative. If I remember, fine, I dun make a special effort to follow up if a connection or introduction worked out, its too taxing.
So if you are someone I helped make introductions for in the past, and are reading this blog now, dun worry about “repaying” or “avoiding” me. I might already have forgotten you but will recall you when I meet someone who you might be keen to meet. 
Yeah, this long tail — a book. Hope you ain’t disappointed.
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