Nice article. I agree with petercooper in that this works in the US, and thats in most places. I lived in India for a while, and in the bigger cities, this will

Nice article. I agree with petercooper in that this works in the US, and thats in most places. I lived in India for a while, and in the bigger cities, this will not fly. Someone once said that if you have don't say anything in a meeting, then you should not have attended to begin with. I take this (or try to anyways) in real life. Treat any interaction as a way of getting to know someone else. Everyone is interesting, everyone has an opinion, and everybody wants to be listened to. All you have to do is the opening act. But at the end of the day you have to be sincere. If you are _not_ interested, don't bother. People can smell phoniness a mile away (thats the reason why the whole networking thing has such a bad name). "Never Eat Alone" is a good book on this subject. I don't agree with everything he has to say, but I agree with his core philosophy. If I know you, and you succeed, then I succeed. And I will do everything I can to help me succeed. (Thats my version)