3. Act confidently and take meaningful risks. In networking, as in anything else, the wise person isn't the one who makes the fewest mistakes. It's the one who learns the most from them.
Discussing time management, my favorite lesson comes from the late Peter Drucker, who said, "Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else."
We all start out in life with one thing in common - the same number of minutes and hours in each day. So why do some people accomplish so much, and others, very little? Because so few of us have learned to beat the clock.
For a salesperson, time isn't next to money in the asset column. It is money. Perhaps the most important lesson I ever learned is that not everyone's clock ticks to the same 
drumbeat. I poked around and learned that 9 to 5 didn't have to be 9 to 5. It didn't matter how my clock ticked. What mattered was how my prospects' clocks ticked.
Some buyers came in at 6 a.m. Some worked until 7 p.m. Some worked Saturday mornings. That boiled down to an edge, if I chose to use it - for three hours every morning, two hours every afternoon and four hours on Saturday. This was invaluable competition-free time. Naturally, these time slots turned out to be my most productive opportunities.
So I changed the playing-field clock. Then I changed my contact tactics. Cold calls were out. I always called ahead to make sure the buyer was in. I made creative appointments and asked for only 300 seconds of the buyer's time. Sounds basic, but the message said my product was special. It was as special as the working hours of my customers.
Not only did these details help me manage my own schedule more efficiently. They helped guarantee that I was up to bat when the prospects were greatest for a maximum payoff.
Along with these two subjects, I've added chapters on topics including how to be prepared should you ever lose your job, execution intelligence and the importance of volunteering.
Will any of these ideas require major changes? Probably not, but I hope they help you see the importance of selling skills for success in any field.
Mackay's Moral: You've heard me say it many times, "Little things mean a lot - not true. Little things mean everything."
