You don’t need to over-exert yourself developing deep relationships with everyone you meet — especially as an introvert. Here’s why.

Perhaps no other word inspires such panic in the introvert’s heart. The idea of standing around in a soulless hotel ballroom, trying to deftly balance a small plate of food while shaking hands with someone else trying to do the same? A nightmare.

I get it. For years, I avoided it, too. I told myself I was too busy building Jotform to spend an evening trading business cards with strangers. In reality, I just didn’t like it. 

What I did like, however, was building connections. I cherished the feeling of talking shop with like-minded people, hearing about their latest projects and telling them about mine; forwarding an article to a long-time acquaintance that reminded me of a conversation we’d had; congratulating a former colleague on a new venture; or complimenting a fellow founder on a successful product release.

That’s when I realized that networking doesn’t have to be making stilted small talk while you quietly weigh the feasibility of escape via air vent. Nor does it have to be a numbers game where you shake as many hands as possible.

It can, in fact, be as simple as talking to people you find interesting, and being willing to reach out when you have something to say. Done right, it doesn’t have to feel like work at all. 

Some words just naturally inspire a deep sense of ick. ” It implies a cheap, transactional nature ; something to discard once it stops producing value.

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