How to Get Ahead
A frequent commenter on my blog is a young man named Yaser Anwar. Yaser is a college student. He is getting out of undergraduate school in 2008. Yaser has, in a fairly short period of time, become quite a well-recognized investment blogger through his site, Investment Ideas Blog. Yaser has been quoted several times in The Wall Steet Journal as well as in TheStreet.com. He has figured out the blogging scene and worked it incredibly well.
He identified me as someone with whom he wanted to establish a relationship several months back, and began to email me. He sent me some of his investment write-ups. I told him thanks, but I really wasn’t that interested in this stuff. Undeterred, he forwarded me several interesting studies and scholarly reports he thought I might find interesting based upon my writings. His tone was respectful yet persistent, and he was able to strike a tone that was neither annoying nor burdensome. I ended up blogging about one of them when I wrote a post on the future of sell-side research.
Yaser continued to stay in touch and, about two weeks ago, asked me if I’d be willing to be part of an interview with him that he would post on his blog. I said send over the questions and I’d think about it. The questions were interesting and intelligent, and I said, ok, but I am really busy and can’t get to it now. No problem, he said. Get to it when you can. Which I did. The results of which are now posted on his blog. Oh, and his post was picked up in NYT DealBook as well as DealBreaker. Why? Because he told them about this interesting interview he had done which he thought might be of interest. Good idea, Yaser. Get it out there, pal. Help people find you.
Anyway, the reason for this post is as follows: for those readers who are young, smart, hungry and ambitious, take a page out of Yaser’s playbook. He is providing you with a great roadmap of how to network, how to build relationships, how to get recognized for your intelligence and how to build a brand. I’ll confess, I was nowhere near as evolved and as heads-up as my new pal Yaser at a like age. I was doing the undergrad thing and doing fine, but certainly not pursuing my dream with the intensity and focus as Yaser. Keep it up, Y Man. You are great example for people everywhere in this competitive and fast-moving 2.0 world.
