(This posting is adapted from the second edition of my book, Rain Making: the Professionals Guide to Attracting New Clients, which will be published in February of 2008. About 40 % of the content in this edition will be new.)

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. Thanksgiving makes me think of big meals, and when I think of big meals, I think of David’s breakfast.

Opportunities to meet and spend time with senior executives don’t come often. You must take full advantage of them, when they do. David Nadler, the founder of Mercer Delta Consulting and now Vice Chairman of Marsh & McLennan Companies, tells this story:

I was asked to give a speech at a conference for a lot of senior executives at the Homestead resort in Virginia. I went down to breakfast the morning of the speech, went through the buffet line and sat down at a table with other people attending the meeting. We all introduced ourselves, and I found out that I was eating breakfast with six very senior executives. After we finished eating and got up to go, I realized that it would be a long time before such an opportunity came again. So, I went back through the buffet line and sat down at another table. I had three breakfasts that morning and probably put on pounds, but it was worth it.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 31st, 2007 at 2:32 pm and is filed under Networking, Rainmaker Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.