Networking, BnI

A while ago I decided to start to take networking seriously.

BFFs?

First I joined a local network club. This didn't cost much and didn't give me much..
It was good to get out among people and I noticed I can connect to people quite easily as long as we keep it real.
We are not BFF's, let's not act that way, let's keep it a bit business like..
What can I do for you and you for me?

After about a year someone pointed me towards BnI.

Too American, too early, tooooooo...much...

I was a bit wary.. I'm Dutch, BNI is American and the system seemed VERRRRY American.
It's a SYSTEM, with RULES, POINTS, CONTEXT, TRAININGS, MENTORS.. phew..
So I visited a few times and found a nice, comfy place at BNI: chapter Rivendel in Baarn.
Nice people, friendly athmosphere, but most excitingly for me: No chummy chum chums.
No pretending to be best friends with somebody you saw once a month ago.
Every meeting again it was said at least once: we're here to do business.
But.......
It's DAMN early for someone who has an ICT background. I usually get really going around 11:00 am. Before that I survive by only running 2 miles per gallon of tea/coffee.
That's usual in IT, we just hide it from the general public.
This thing starts at 6:30 am and it's every damn week... AAARGH.

SO GET OVER IT!

That's one thing I learned from another set of Americans.. GET OVER IT..
So I've joined the BnI network for a year, just to see what would happen and it's keeping me busy since.
But recently the most amazing thing happened.
2 people told me, they were looking for a gamedeveloper, to create a game...

I have a brilliant idea for an app....

Networking up to now meant: People come up and tell you they have a brilliant idea for an app.
All I have to do then is make it, put it in the app-store, market it, maintain it and they will share 50% of all income for that privilige.. Wow, what a deal!
Those offers, I had a plenty, but a serious "looking for a gamedeveloper", to make a "game". Nope..
Never happened in 15 years.

No, that kind of thing can come from existing clients, that's were I got my business..
But never from relative strangers. people you meet once or a couple of times.
In the first month that I joined BnI, it happened twice.
So, yeah.. It's a quite lot of work, if you wanna do it right, but it seems to pay of and in my case quite quickly.
I know I was amazed. People keep telling me: it won't last, that's just beginners luck.. We're in it for the long haul.. Well, me too.. I was just giving it a go.

Busy, busy

So will they follow through?
Problem is.. I'm a bit busy. I allready have four major assignments up to Januari 2016 ( a series of 7/8 games, a game and webshop, custom software and a SERIOUS webapp to make in those few months).
That's a bit much.. We are talking nights and weekends.
So it'll all have to wait a while, before I can test that, but I'll keep you posted.