Multiple studies confirm thisāmost of us like being helpful. Itās hard-wired into our DNA. We are social creatures, and helping one another is one of the things that makes us feel best. Kurt didnāt know his way around the sustainable architecture industry in Atlanta. You may not know your way around the nanotechnology community in Hong Kong, or the craft beer crowd in Wichita, or the emergency-room nursing union in Seattle. What do you do? You ask a local for directions. Getting referrals to people whose stories would be useful to hear is just the professional equivalent of asking directions. So go aheadāask for directions. Itās. No. Big. Deal. āNetworkā is more noun than verb. The point isnāt to ādoā network-ing; the goal is to participate in the network. Simply put, it just means to enter into a particular community thatās having a particular conversation (such as sustainable architecture). Every domain of human endeavor is held together by a web of relationships between people. Real people. That web is the fabric that undergirds, contains, and holds together that part of society. The Stanford ānetworkā that we are a part of holds Stanford together. The Silicon Valley ānetworkā is the loose community of West Coast folk that allows tech entrepreneurship to flourish. Most individuals have both a professional network (of colleagues) and a personal network (of friends and family).