Dig Your Well Before You're Thirsty by Harvey Mackay

Hearing and meeting Harvey Mackay at Celebrate!Enterprise was a real treat.  This practical, well-written networking book is easy to read in small segments, as the 83 chapters are contained in 300 pages.  As queen of cliff notes, I love Mackay's Maxim at the end of each chapter.  In addition to expected tips and tools, he provides interesting stories from his fascinating career.  He beautifully illustrates that networking is a lifetime adventure, most enjoyed by those who realize that we have the chance to enrich the lives of everyone we meet, and that the unexpected connections we make can yield huge dividends.  He drives home the point that we need to keep our relationships current, but offers options if we suffer lapses.

Exceptional Unexpected Impact

I recently had the opportunity to hear and meet New York Times best-selling author Harvey Mackay.  His first wildly successful book is Swim with the Sharks without Being Eaten Alive.  As a sponsor for the Houston event he was keynoting, I had the chance to meet him before his presentation and notice and positively comment on his shark tie.  After the event, I waited, not only to have one of his books signed, but to give him what I perceive to be a perfect marketing tool - shark mints (in which I have no financial or other interest).  As my small world connections would have it, his friend (that he was visiting with after our event) and I have known one another for some time, serve together on a community board, and shared a common graduation ceremony later in that week (his grandson and my son).

Yesterday, I was like a kid at Christmas, when I received a personal note from Harvey Mackay with a collection of his special books (yes, I love business books!).