Being Rude - BAD, Finding People - EASY

I don't believe in embarrassing people. It does not reflect poorly on them but rather on you. In any event, this incident, perhaps too strong a word, happened months ago. While it was a series of public posts, meaning I could share them without permission, why do it? Here's what happened.

A person who, according to his LinkedIn profile, has a number of businesses all dealing with very high net-worth individuals. One of those businesses is a networking site for HNWs (I recently leaned they have earned their own acronym!). The owner posted a request for information on how to contact a retired sports figure, now a billionaire businessman.

Given that this person was presenting himself as someone who for, if I remember correctly, well over a decade, had been working with people who should know how to contact the individual, I found the post hilarious and said so. A few people subsequently "liked" my reaction.

In any event, the person who made the initial post/request, did not share our view and chose to respond with an ad hominem attack on me. I responded explaining why I found his request so funny. It is ironic, I wrote, that someone who claims to have a network of high net-worth individuals can't find the one person he's actually looking to meet. Apparently, I was then blocked. Nothing wrong with that; I've done it myself. That said, here was his mistake:

When I saw the attack, I wanted to see how long it would take me to find the information he wanted. I had it in about 30 seconds. If he had responded in a professional manner, I would have told him what to do. But an ad hominem attack must result in the attacker being disqualified as someone to be referred. It would be crazy to introduce a rude person to someone with whom you want to have a good working relationship. Lesson: Don't be rude!

So, how do you find high net-worth individuals? In the case of sports figures, it's quite easy. (For that matter, many, if not most, HNWs belong to speakers' bureaus, so this holds true for all of them.) All I did was a Google search of "Who is the agent for X?" A few seconds later I had the agent's name. Some news articles also came up and, before proceeding, I made sure I had the right person. I then Goggled, "How can I reach sports agent Y?" And that was all there was to it.

I knew this because, in a past life, as a fundraiser, I had once tried to find Jimmy Stewart to invite him to be the guest of honor at the annual gala for the non-profit for which I was working. (I really wanted to meet Harvey! Google it if you don't understand and watch the movie. You'll like it!) I called, this was in the primitive days before Google, the Screen Actors Guild and took it from there. General, he was a general in the USAF, Stewart was unavailable. So I neither had the honor of meeting him, nor, for that matter, not seeing (watch the movie!) Harvey, but, nevertheless, we did have our most successful fundraiser honoring a local business leader. He was easy to find. A board member gave him a call. (At the time, I did not appreciate it, but I had a great network!)

So. to recap, be polite, ask Google, and believe in Harvey (if you don't, you are dead to me)!

ARE YOU AN EXPERT IN YOUR FIELD? THEN I INVITE YOU TO BE A GUEST ON MY PODCAST, BRUCE HURWITZ PRESENTS: MEET THE EXPERTS. FOR COMPLETE DETAILS, TO APPLY AND TO SCHEDULE AN INTERVIEW VISIT: https://hsstaffing.com/video-podcast

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