Networking in the Caribbean community abroad - is it valuable

Well, in starting up my magazine one thing I knew I must do is to network: get in front of various individuals out there that are known in the community and see what they think about the idea and if they would support it. This is probably much more important than securing any advertising commitment. Once you make the right connections and gain credibility then your idea will be supported and then hopefully the dollars will follow to sustain your venture. So the story that I want to relate here will open up what has become my new lease on life: networking is valuable and so is taking care of your community (whatever and whoever that community consists of). See, the mistake I have made here after being transplanted from Jamaica to South Florida is that I have been indifferent at times where fellow Caribbean brethren are concerned. Now that is not the same as turning your back but the results are no different.

So here I am approaching this well known member of the community in Broward County and pitched the idea to this individual who turned to me after I was done and said "You know I have never heard of you. If you have been around I am sure I would have heard of you" At this point I explained that I was basically new to the scene (in terms of trying a venture, NOT new in terms of living in the area). Then I was asked well did you get involved in this and that to which the answer was no (this was not that long ago and we are still involved in the whole immigration scenario with Congress etc). And then it hit me what she was saying. If you take care of your community your community will take care of you. See I came to realize that if I had been involved in the community all this time I would not have the credibility problem. But now I do. So I researched organizations that I could get involved in, which was easy beacuse this is the fulcrum of my magazine. And then applied for membership with the full aim of getting involved. It is situations like this that I hope to help others avoid in the future.

When I came here to the US, I went straight to college. There was always emphasis on networking but there was no real push to network with the Caribbean community (or maybe I chose not to see it). But as part of my magazine evolution I hope to put it out there to students (and to business leaders) that this is important. I think it is overlooked at times that our business leaders look to help businesses but not the students as much. So hopefully we will get that to change a bit. I know I have already changed in this regard, having learned my lesson. It was a harsh one but the conversation that I mentioned earlier is one of the best lessons I have learned in "mi ole age!"