How do you deal with continuous requests for cooperation?
mahmud: Revel in it. Anyone asking you for cooperation is in a segment of that population that's less than 1%.What you need to do is get their contacts and spend 15 minutes of your time _understanding_ their business. Got it? Now lock that face, image and line of work into your mind and put away their card in the rolodex.You don't realize it, but if you keep doing that, you will become one of highly coveted people in the business: the connector. Even if you never work with any of them directly, you can introduce people to each other and your social network gains and becomes profitable, thanks to you.The highest business relationship you can have with someone is to become their trusted advisor. Their confidant. Their go to guy for problem solving. People in high positions have many people asking them questions, many people offering them solutions for a fee, but few who genuinely want to listen to them and share their professional experiences as friends.Whatever you can do yourself, or with paid employees, pales in comparison to what everyone you know, along with their paid employees, can do together.When you are in that role, you can delegate entire companies to become a wing of your small firm. But always keep your mutual best interest in mind: no one likes a take take take only person, or a bully.Guard your reputation with your life: recommend only people you trust. Suggest people to others in their "rank"; never introduce a high value C-level executive to someone you're sure is a kickass tax-form chef, even if you would use the shady little accountant yourself, introducing him to the big boss makes you look cheap. Introduce people to each other who you know could benefit each other personally and professionally. So you know an amazing underground film director who can make both indie films, and awe-inspiring corporate promotion videos; if you know this director is an uncontrollable social renegade, and a pot-head to boot, STEP IN and manage the guy, don't unleash him on the board-room and expect good karma to come your way after their "profitable" cooperation producing the company's annual event. You are responsible for people you introduce to each other, make sure the relationship can work right from the start, but if you're unsure, be at hand to make it happen (if it doesn't work out; there are at least two people in your immediate network who don't trust your judgement; and this rotten segment grows proportional to how many others in your network they both know and talk to.)blah blah blah, I am sure this is gonna go way over HN's head :-/