This is an 1896 hand-cranked telephone. I put this picture here for a reason...
In 1896, that's how you had to call people. You turn the crank, speak the operator, then the operator patched you through to the other party.
It was slow, and much less efficient, and who you could call was very limited!
Electronic communication in those days was pretty much limited to the telephone and the telegraph.
Contrast that to today... We have so many ways to talk to each other... Phones, email, text messages, Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, and so on...!
Having good contacts has always been a source of power and even wealth. Who you know can make you an important person too, and even indispensable - and that can be turned into money, in multiple ways.
For example, if two people can make a profitable deal, you can become the third person who profits as well... if you're the one who introduced them to each other for this purpose!
With all these ways of communicating nowadays... Good contacts have become even more powerful and important!
It lets you keep in touch with more people... It's easier to do so. People who have a good memory for names, faces, and personal details have an advantage in doing this, though - but I believe that's something you can improve at with practice, or by using various memory techniques.
So, we no longer live in the age of the hand-cranked telephone... But today, with all our communication devices and apps, contacts are even more important.
Can you afford to not keep improving your collection of good contacts? (It's something I keep working on myself!)
Best wishes,
Dien