Keith Ferazzi’s Never Eat Alone

Keith Ferazzi, the youngest partner in Deloitte Consulting's history and founder of the consulting company Ferrazzi Greenlight, quickly aims in this book (coauthored with Tahl Raz), titled Never Eat Alone to distinguish his networking techniques from generic handshakes and business cards tossed like confetti. Each of 31 short chapters highlights a specific technique or concept, from "Warming the Cold Call" and "Managing the Gatekeeper" to following up, making small talk, "pinging" (or sending "quick, casual" greetings) and defining oneself to the point where one's missives become "the e-mail you always read because of who it's from." In addition to variations on the theme of hard work, Ferrazzi offers counterintuitive perspectives that ring true: "vulnerability... is one of the most underappreciated assets in business today"; "too many people confuse secrecy with importance."

He doesn't recommend carpet bombing a place with your business cards or to be seen with people you may not like as a way to advance personal interests. Many talented and smart people are shy and either avoid situations or resort to the other extreme – overdo with self centric bravado or the height s of it arrogance or can do all and move mountains. It is now real that lifetime corporate employment is at thing of the past – we all live in an emerging e-lance economy – very likely wandering through several companies , different career paths, no.of jobs along the way and various companies.

I do not read a lot of of "secrets of becoming a success in business"- like self-help books, but this looks different from the rest - written by a professional consulting partner – discussing going beyond general commonsensical things – fully reflecting energy and written in a very absorbing style.