Recommendations Matter
My business runs on my reputation. If I do a good job and my clients are happy, they may hire me again, or refer me to someone else.
Referrals and recommendations are the heart of effective networking, and without networking these days, there is little we can accomplish.
Why?
Because people go with what they know. In other words, we judge the value of someone by the company one keeps.
Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Surely we do not need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you, do we? - 2 Corinthians 3:1
The same was true in the early church. Before the followers of The Way even called themselves Christians, they evaluated each other on the basis of trust, and that trust was formed from their relationships.
If I choose to stay within my small circle of friends and don't seek to build new relationships outside that group, I probably will live my life in fear of anyone that seems or acts differently from my norm.
One thing the Internet has done that could be positive, is open us up to the possibility of encountering new people, indirectly at first, as friends of friends. It may not make it any easier for me to get out of my shell, since I still have to initiate the contact, or accept the invitation to connect, but it does provide opportunities.
My father used to say that no one is going to knock on the front door and offer you a job.
That's still true, but that front door is now open to the whole world.
Imagine if the members of the early church had that kind of access to each other?
I understand why many are afraid to connect online. I also understand how difficult it is to force yourself to get up and get out into the world when you live alone or have fewer friends than you did just a few years ago.
Life is hard sometimes, but it is a lot harder when you are alone.
We don't need referrals or recommendations to extend a hand in friendship. We just need guts.
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