Hello everyone, this is Helen Huang @ Organizing, based in Beijing, China. In order to better learn and practice the YiXiaoNeng Time Management System, after finished publishing 100 Chinese articles, I decided to continue writing and publishing a daily English article in another 100 days based on the "YeWuBin Time Management 100 Episodes" audio program. Today is the 174th day.
Today's topic is: The Real Value of Friendship
These audio lessons in Ximalaya cover a single overall topic of time management, but it's important to listen from the beginning because each technique builds on the last one. From habit formation to success to networking, they all work together to build your ability to master time management and build a better you.
Time management mastery is the ability to weave multiple techniques together. It's the combination of all of these that forms the mastery of the art. Therefore, if you have not listened to all of the prior recordings from 1-73, then I suggest going back and listening before proceeding. If you really have no time to listen to all of them, you should at least listen to the first lesson in this topic.
In the last few lessons we've been talking about interpersonal relationships.
In the first class, we talked about the ten standards for winners in life including earning, health in body and mind, and social relationships.
In the previous class, we talked about interpersonal relationships formed by both strong and weak relationships. Strong relationships are used to build an emotional connection, and weak relationships are used for connecting to networks of information.
And which of these is more important? That's right, weak connections are more important. Weak connections are social networks that allow us to deliver and receive information to others. Relatives and friends would like to communicate with us through our strong connections, but we are so familiar with each other that we don't learn any new. Therefore, you learn more and gain more information with people you are not so familiar with.
Today, I will combine lesson from my experience of over ten years in entrepreneurship with the theory of weak connections that I've developed over the past 2 or 3 years, in order to show you how they can be used to master time management. I very appreciate an article from the American Journal of Sociology called The Strength of Weak Ties. The data from this study has verified my points.
Today, the theory of weak connections to build networks and get ahead is common knowledge. Whether you want to learn new things, get the job or start a business, you should avoid searching for help from strong relationships and instead go out and develop weak connections.
The statistical information indicates that ideas for new businesses, products and informational ventures all came from weak connections. Ideas from weak ties and our networks are more creative and innovative. In entrepreneurship, the idea for a new and exciting business usually comes from discussions with people you're not familiar with – these weak connections.
It seems that going to dinner parties are indeed better than staying at home, because of a very simple concept that I will share now. The statistics show that in the process of starting a business, if your information network mainly consists of weak connections, your creative ability will be 1.36 times stronger than if your ideas came from strong connections.
Here's another surprising fact. If you would rather not share your ideas with others at all, and you just look for information from the media and unknown experts, then your creative ability will be 1.5 times stronger than if you depended on strong connections like your family and close friends. Is that shocking? The more diverse your social network, the more creative the ideas will be that come out of it. Those who have extremely diverse social contacts, who have both strong links and weak links, and talk to as many as people as possible to get all sides of the issue, are able to innovate three times as much as those without. Not 1.36, not 1.5 but 3 times as much! The power comes from the diversity of information, and diveristy comes form the weaker, more unfamiliar relationships that you have.
But here's the problem: it's difficult to refuse the temptation to listen to advice from those in our strong connection inner circle. Let's look at an article from Harvard University called the Value of Friendship. This is a very new study. The writer investigated more than 3,000 venture capitalists and more than 10,000 actual investments from these folks in the past several decades.
Some people choose to work with people who have the same ability as their own, for example, those who graduate from the same prestigious universities, or that form alumni networks. So however, more people cooperate with the people they familiar with, instead, such as their classmates, colleagues and fellow neighbors. The study indicates that you can increase your success by networking with those who study the same subject matter as you, but you'll reduce your success if you only speak to those who you are familiar with.
Let's look at the specific analysis: What kind of people are investors willing to partner with? Obviously, they will partner with those who are more skilled or more successful. Venture partners tended to choose contacts from prestigious universities, 8.5% of the time. More often, they chose partners from the same university they graduated with, about 20.5% of the time. So they were choosing people more often that they had graduated with than from a better university. And they chose to cooperate with contacts from the same internal group such as a fraternity or athletic team, 22.8% of the time. So you can see from all this, that we tend to choose relationships with those we are more familiar with, rather than those who are better or more skillful. Is't that striking?
So we know who we tend to connect with. So let's see now what factors determine the actual success or failure of an investment partnership?
Looking at two venture investors, if one graduates from a famous university, the probability of success increases 9%. If his partner also graduates from a famous university, the possibility will improve 11%, so choose a partner that has a greater educational background. The educational background translates into ability and ability into probability of success.
But, remember from the previous information that we only choose people we were familiar with more often than from a better university. Even though we have a better chance of success, we are choosing people that give us less success. Because they are more familiar to us, and they are stronger connections. It's hurting us.
Now, if you choose the partner who worked with you in the same company, it will reduce the chances of a successful venture investment by 18%, and by 22% if from the same school, and by 25% if from the same group within the school. So we are more likely to choose people who are more familiar with, but the chance of success decreases in turn the closer we are to them. So the best business partner is the well-educated person who you didn't study with in the same university, or from the same company or internal group.
So let's be honest. We all like strong connections, especially our university friends and colleagues. We like to hanging out with people we are familiar with. We like to call them and we like to help them. But the reality shows that it is not the most efficient way to build success.
The article Value of Friendship points out that our probability of success declines the more we depend on this friendship in the business world. So today, remember that friendship is friendship, work is work, and study is study. Our emotional health comes from strong connections, but our study and work certainly depend on weak connections.
That's all sharing today. Thank you being with me together. Have a wonderful day!