Customer Reviews

The Power of Who: You Already Know Everyone You Need to Know

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"The Power of Who; You Already Know Everyone You Need To Know" by Bob Beaudine teaches us a new way to think about business and personal networking.

Mr. Beaudine says, "Networking as we know it is crap. It doesn't work!" He explains that it is a waste of time to depend on acquaintances or strangers to help us achieve our goals or find our dream job. The better strategy is to focus on our inner circle of friends and family members. These are the people that believe in us and want to see us succeed.

The "100/40 Strategy" says the average person could make a list of 100 people they have known during their life. You are then told to make a list of 40 things you want to do and accomplish in life. You can then connect the dots and use the people from the "Who" list to help achieve goals on the "What" list.

Mr. Beaudine is a wonderful storyteller and shares some fascinating personal experiences in this book. One of the most poignant lessons that he shares is "Clue 4 - Rejection" in Chapter 6. He tells of a high school basketball coach that called him off the bench and into a game when the team was 18 points behind and two minutes left before the final buzzer. Bob miraculously scored 10 points in less than one minute. The coach called a time out and yelled, "Beaudine - you hog! Get off the court. First team, you're in!" The team lost, 50 - 42.

Mr. Beaudine acknowledges that there are "hog callers" and "dream killers" everywhere. They have no appreciation for your gifts and talents. "Go where you're celebated, not just tolerated." Your "Who" are your real friends who love you and want to see you succeed.

I have decided to apply the concepts in this book to my own life. I want to re-connect with friends that I have neglected in the past few years. I will nurture and treasure my "Who" in a new way. Thank you, Mr. Beaudine!

Just finished reading this book and was reminded of remembering "Who" really counts in your life. It gave me motivation to reach out to associates I had been reluctant to share my job search challeneges with before reading this book. I recommend it for everyone in a professional position whether you are currently looking for a new challenege or trying to improve your career.

Recently I wanted a new position with one of the most pretigious firms in the world. Instead of submitting a resume, I followed the principles of the Power of Who. I identified the key decision maker and then reached out to my circle. Three friends had personal relationships with this decision maker and sent recommendations to him before we met. This changed the entire tenor of our meeting and I was hired. But it didn't stop there. Now when pursuing business, I utilize the Power of Who to identify and secure recommendations from my circle to key decision makers. No longer I am just another salesman looking for business. I am now share a common thread with these decision makers. The Power of Who is not just about getting your dream job. It is also about succeeding in all aspects of your life. It is a process for getting what you want.

Everything happens for a reason and sometimes it is hard to remember that when a lot of "everything" is happening to you. After dealing with three major life-changing situations in a relatively short period of time in 2008, I was having trouble moving forward. A friend (one of my Who) sent me the Power of Who and what a thoughtful and wonderful gift it turned out to be.

Mr. Beaudine's words and stories seemed to speak directly to me providing encouragement and a much needed time for reflection - remembering my own strategically placed relationships and how important it is to reach out to those that truly care about you. The Power of Who provides a great framework for thinking about the people in your life and their role (Chapter 3). Another great piece of advice was to be clear about what you want - people can help you when you can describe what you need in specific terms. My most favorite part of the book was Charlie the shoe shine man's blessing on page 163, which I read daily as a constant reminder to appreciate and nurture the many gifts of friendship I have been blessed with.

Everyone should read the Power of Who, no matter what your present situation is. Whether you are in need of assistance and/or are in a position to help someone else, this book can put you on the right track. It is a great affirmation that the people in our lives are the most important treasure we have.

Well written and helpful in the pursuit to focus on what you really want to accomplish in your life. The book also helps to better understand networking.

One of the most important points to me is you can't go it alone. No matter how hard you focus alone you can't accomplish your goals by yourself, you need others. That was a difficult concept for me to accept.

I have written down the 10 most important points to help me focus on my goals and not to get lost in the forest of misdirected efforts.

Joel Sandy

Bob Beaudine shares his personal principles for networking in "The Power of Who". The basic premise is that a smaller, more personal network of friends (your "Who") is more valuable personally and professionally than a large network of people with whom you may only have a weak connection. Mr. Beaudine provides a number of examples of the impact of "Who" on people with whom he has interacted. He also highlights some of the benefits of having a strong network, who can defuse negative self-talk, provide perspective, engage in reciprocity, and support self-efficacy. Unlike a more traditional networking approach, Mr. Beaudine's concept of "Who" works on the assumption that those close to you, who have a more meaningful relationship to you, will bring the power of their own "Who" network to your benefit.

Frequent readers of self-help books oriented to business will recognize the writing style. The first half of the book is slow going and could have used some more editing. High points, like Chapter 3 - Your "Who" World - and Chapter 7 - Reworking You and Your "Who" - are worth the wait and Mr. Beaudine's story telling and concepts are much clearer there. Some of his tangents, into interviewing skills or kindness to strangers, are tied back to the "Who" and "What" concepts but do not seem to fit well into the overall arc of the book. The writing is made more engaging by use of anecdotes and, particularly in the last third of the book, references to other relationship theories and writers that can help the interested reader.

Mr. Beaudine talks only about strategic networks in human terms, but online networking users of sites like LinkedIn can benefit from his concepts as well. Because "Who" relies not only on your close network, but the power in the individual "Who" of each member of your network, it's clear that the lack of friction in online networking is no excuse for creating large and random networks merely because you can. His tips help you to think about who, and what, you should be focusing on from both personal and business perspectives.

Solid book of common sense. Recommend to all who are seeking to grow an organization or business. Read with a notepad and paper- take notes, you will need them.

This was a great book for me because it made me realize that the people that I already know are very important to me not only personally but also for professional reasons. These are the people that know me and trust me, it makes sense that they would use me for their benefit as well. I am a REALTOR and as I look back over the past couple of years, it has been the people I already knew that where my most profitable business transactions and my biggest cheerleaders. I recommend this read.

The Power of Who provides a stunningly simple idea that can help ANYONE---someone looking for a job, a person who feels they are at a career crossroad, the person who needs some extra encouragement to go after what they REALLY want--- all while reminding us that staying close to the people that we care about and that care about us most is incredibly fulfilling. Bob Beaudine tells us stories, gives us lessons, and encourages us to action, he makes you want to pick up the phone and call one of your Who. This is not only a must read for any person that is looking to make a career change or seeking job but also for those who want to do their best to help their friends (and their entire Who) achieve what they desire. Bravo to Mr. Beaudine for his inspiration.

I read this book cover to cover. At well under 200 pages, that didn't take long. Especially since most of it is anecdotes and filler. I think you could probably just read the chapter headings and get a good idea about what The Power of Who is about. In fact, I'm pretty sure Mr. Beaudine's conversation with his publisher went something like:
Bob: Hey! I've got a great new book idea. Networking is about who you know, not what you know!
Publisher: Great, can you send me a draft?
Bob: Sure. Here it is
Publisher: It's only 10 pages long. I don't think I can publish anything with less than 150 pages or so.
Bob: Ok, well no problem. I can just fill it out with some embellished anecdotes, restate the same thing in a slightly different way a couple times, take the line spacing to 1.5, and increase the margins. It'll be just like I'm writing a report in high school all over again.

The issue isn't that I think ol' Bob's self marketing strategy isn't a good one, it's just that it's a very concise plan. Like the Atkins diet books that have to fill pages with recipes since "don't eat carbs" doesn't take that long to write. If you're somebody of middling intelligence and looking to make it in the business world, this is the book for you. It'll hold your hand and spell out exactly the steps you need to make to "land your dream job." If you fancy yourself a little (or significantly) above average in the smarts department, well then this book has some value as well. Although you may have already figured out many of the tenets of this book on your own, it's nice to have something to remind you about them and give you a kick in the pants to get moving toward what you want. Bob's strategy in general leans toward the ideological, and as a result, will work with somebody in almost any field. That's good. The flip side to that coin though is that there aren't many specifics on exactly how to implement the strategy. That's bad.

The book itself was easy to follow and the anecdotes were charming for the most part. The problem I have with anecdotes is that they don't mean anything - and they're 100% of the evidence he provides for the success of his method. Ok, great. You managed to land 10 whole people their dream jobs using your method. I'll take your word for it, seeing as how you provide no proof that these events actually happened, but that is another matter all together. But how many people has the method not worked for? What's the success rate for landing your dream job using this method versus other competing ones? I'd love to see a scientific study performed to that effect. Of course that probably wouldn't make the NY Times Best Seller List, so I digress. The point is, his success stories are fun, but you need to take them with a grain of salt.

The final thing to watch for in this book is that it was written by the exact mental image I have for a wealthy caucasian from Texas. He's Republican and loves his football, family, and Jesus. That's great, but judging by the book, I don't think it's occurred to him that not everybody loves Jesus as much as he does... or is as familiar with the Bible. There were a few Bible references in the book that, as a non-Christian, kinda lost me. Also, don't fret southern Republicans, the book makes its obligatory Bill Clinton joke. I swear there has got to be some unspoken rule in Texas that you have to make a Clinton joke at least once a day or you'll go to Hell.