Business advice from 7 of the top CEOs in business today

[Dien Rice]

Originally Posted by MMacGillivray

The BBC has started asking Chief Executives to reveal the advice which would have helped them most when they started out in business. There are some very interesting responses -

"What is the advice you wish you'd had, when you started out?"

Thanks for sharing that great article, Margaret!

I'll just pick one of the many good ones in that article to comment on at the moment...

"Networking"...

Contacts are very important!

I think you can never have enough contacts... (Though I find, for what I do, other contacts who are also in business often turn out to be the most valuable... because that's one way you find new opportunities!)

I'll give a very quick example...

Recently, I organized a film screening. My business partner in this and I had a meeting with a guy who is the main guy in a company which controls many film rights in Australia. He spends a certain amount of his time jet-setting to film festivals around the world, doing deals as to what film rights his company will purchase.

Anyway... in meeting with him, I also met his wife. His wife is Chinese, and has a lot of business contacts in China.

Now, it turns out, another friend of mine needs contacts in China who are importing things from Australia. Guess what? That's right, his wife, it seems, has those contacts! (She is a businesswoman in her own right.)

So, I'm organizing a meeting between the two, as it could be mutually beneficial to both of them. We'll see how it goes. (And I could benefit down the line, too.) But, if I didn't know either of them, I wouldn't be able to potentially "help out" here... And if it works out, I know I'll benefit down the line as well...

Contacts are a kind of "resource"... Just like having finances is a kind of resource. With the right contacts, you find that doors will open, and opportunities leap out at you as well!

The most useful contacts I've found, in my experience, are those people doing "real" business... That is, people who are making actual real sales or earning actual real income from their business. So, if you have to "focus" your efforts, I'd focus on that group specifically... (In other words, people like Margaret!)

Thanks Margaret!

Best wishes,

Dien