Hi Mel,

I agree with you that both are definitely important, but what's influencing my own thinking is that good contacts - it seems - can be a replacement for knowledge, but not vice versa.

For example, with recognizing good deals - if you know the right people with the right knowhow, it's possible they could recognize the good deals for you, based on their expertise....

Something like your "5 Minute Mentor" service I think is very valuable, since it lets people leverage your knowledge and experience. Often, using a service like yours is a wise thing for people to do....

I come from a super-over-educated background - like "poor dad's" advice, I was taught that what you know is important, and I was never taught the importance of who you know.... So, I'm only very begrudgingly now starting to come to the alternative viewpoint.... ;)

By the way, I just got the book "Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks" by Mark Buchanan (he a former features editor of Nature magazine, and has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics). (That's the American title - in the UK it's published with the title, "Small World: Uncovering Nature's Hidden Networks".) His book is aimed at a popular audience, but it treats the topic of "networks" more "scientifically" than any other book I've seen - I recommend it (from what I've read of it so far)....

- Dien Rice