Over the past year I’ve formed a core belief that any sustained success relies on the collaboration between people. The opportunities that have transformed my personal career have been the results of relationships that were cultivated when they could have more easily withered.

For example the instructor for a competitive intelligence course I took in 2007, later passed my information on to a reporter, which resulted in an article in Inc Magazine. Like other participants who took the course, I could’ve easily ended my relationship with the program and the instructor when the course ended. Perhaps I’d have gone a step further and become a ‘LinkedIn Connection’, checking in on his profile as a curiosity from time to time.

Instead, our relationship has bloomed into one of mutual respect, to the point that I came to mind when an opportunity presented itself. He was even abreast that I had recently left Microsoft to start my entrepreneurial adventure.

I tell this anecdote as an exemplar of the life lesson I take from it. If there is one skill I hope to possess and continuously refine, it would be my ability to Be Sticky.

To ‘Be Sticky’ you need not only an uncanny ability to attract the highest level collaborators and strongest thinkers to your network, but also contribute enough value to their lives that there is mutual interest in maintaining the connection. Finally, you have to nurture the relationship from their interests not your own. Read their blogs, their articles, pass along links that are on their topics of interest.

Find your own style that works, but no matter the cost “Be Sticky” reaching your full potential depends on it.

Related reading:

Think & Grow Rich – Section on Master Minding

Good in a Room – Section on Maintaining Relationships