Have you ever found you only get the benefit of making an effort with networking many years later?
About 5 years ago, the foreign rights manager at my London publisher mentioned I should meet their counterpart in China next time I was there. I said I’d try.
About 6 months later, I was in Beijing to give a motivational speech, so I got in touch and we had a coffee. I told them about my latest book (Walking Home From Mongolia), and they said they’d ask around the Chinese publishers to see if anyone was interested in translating it.
About a year later – I heard they had found someone.
A year after that, it got published in Chinese – but I never saw the book.
And then last week, almost 5 years after the initial conversation in London, I suddenly received 5 copies of the Chinese edition in the post. That made me very happy!
Sometimes, our efforts with networking and building important new work relationships are not rewarded for a long time – but then, much later, they are, and that makes it very worthwhile.
Can you relate to this?