What Is Connection Capital?
Financial capital gives you the ability to deploy money.
Intellectual capital gives you the ability to deploy knowledge.
Relationship capital gives you access to people.
Connection Capital goes one step further.
It is not measured by the number of names in your phone.
It is not the number of LinkedIn connections you have.
It is not the size of your email list.
Connection Capital is built when people trust your judgment enough to believe that when you say:
there is a good reason for the introduction.
An Introduction Can Create Enormous Value
Consider one of the shortest business transactions imaginable.
Someone says:
That may take three seconds.
Or perhaps one short email.
But what happens next?
Susan knows an investor.
Or a publisher.
Or a potential customer.
Or someone with expertise the entrepreneur desperately needs.
A conversation begins.
The conversation creates an opportunity.
The opportunity becomes a project.
The project creates revenue.
Perhaps employees are hired.
Perhaps a book is published.
Perhaps a company begins.
The person who made the original introduction may never receive a dollar from any of it.
Yet value was created.
Seeing Relationships Other People Miss
Great connectors possess a particular kind of intelligence.
They hear a need and think of a person.
Someone says:
"I need help getting publicity."
The connector thinks of someone who understands publicity.
Someone says:
"I've always wanted to publish my book."
A name appears.
Someone needs financial knowledge.
Another needs podcasting help.
Someone needs encouragement.
Another needs a business partner.
The connector is continually matching:
Problem → Knowledge
Idea → Resource
Person → Possibility
The connector does not need to possess every answer.
They need to recognize where the answer may exist.
An Introduction Transfers Trust
Compare two messages.
Now compare:
The second conversation begins differently.
Why?
Because the introduction carries context.
Someone already trusted by both people has placed their judgment behind the meeting.
The connector is not saying:
"Do business with this person."
They are saying:
That can be extraordinarily valuable.
It is also why thoughtful introductions carry responsibility.
When you introduce someone, part of your reputation travels with them.
Contacts Are Not the Same as Connections
Networking culture often rewards accumulation.
More followers.
More contacts.
More business cards.
More people added to a database.
But a contact may contain very little actual relationship.
You may know someone's name without knowing:
what they are trying to build,
what they need,
what they know,
who they can help,
or whether either of you trusts the other.
Connection requires more.
Listening.
Relevance.
Trust.
Follow-through.
Connection Capital Takes Many Forms
The Investor
A trusted introduction can help an entrepreneur get the attention of someone who might never answer a cold inquiry.
The Mentor
A single conversation with someone who has already traveled the road can save years of mistakes.
The Client
Referrals allow trust to travel from one satisfied relationship into another.
The Publisher
One introduction can transform a manuscript from a private project into something capable of reaching readers.
The Partner
Complementary strengths can create something neither person could build alone.
The Employee
A recommendation can connect an organization with the person who eventually becomes essential to its success.
The Speaker
One trusted recommendation can place an important idea before an entirely new audience.
The Friend
Not every valuable introduction creates money. Some create relationships that enrich an entire life.
The Missing Resource
Sometimes the connector simply knows the tool, company, community or resource another person needs.
Connection Capital Can Grow
You introduce Person A to Person B.
Something useful happens.
Both remember.
Later, Person A introduces you to Person C.
Person B introduces you to Person D.
You help Person D.
D eventually introduces someone else.
The network expands.
More importantly, trust expands.
People begin recognizing a pattern:
That reputation attracts more good people.
More good people create more possibilities to connect.
The asset compounds.
You Cannot Buy Trusted Connection Capital Overnight
You can buy advertising.
You can buy access to events.
You can buy software.
You can buy mailing lists.
But trusted Connection Capital takes time.
You build it by behaving well.
Making thoughtful introductions.
Respecting people's time.
Protecting confidentiality.
Following through.
Being honest about what you know and what you do not.
Not wasting someone's trust with careless introductions.
Don't Become a Human Spam Folder
Once people begin seeing themselves as connectors, another problem can appear.
They start connecting everyone.
"You two should meet."
Why?
"You're both entrepreneurs."
That is not enough.
Good introductions require judgment.
Ask:
Is there a legitimate reason these people should talk?
Is the timing appropriate?
Would the conversation likely create value for both sides?
Have I asked permission?
Am I respecting both people's time?
Ask Before You Introduce
A thoughtful introduction respects both people.
You might say:
Then ask the other person:
Now both people enter the conversation willingly.
The introduction itself should explain:
who the people are,
why you are connecting them,
and what may be worth discussing.
Then step away.
Not Every Introduction Needs a Commission
There are legitimate business situations where referral fees, commissions and formal agreements make perfect sense.
Those arrangements should be transparent.
But not every human connection needs to become a financial transaction.
Sometimes:
is enough.
If you demand ownership of every opportunity that passes through you, people may eventually stop allowing opportunities to pass through you.
Superconductors understand the difference between a commercial transaction and a contribution to the network.
CEO Space Was a Connection Exchange
CEO Space created unusually fertile conditions for Connection Capital.
People arrived carrying needs.
They also arrived carrying resources.
One person needed capital.
Another knew investors.
Someone needed publicity.
Another understood publicity.
Someone needed a publisher.
Someone knew publishing.
Someone needed encouragement.
Someone else had survived circumstances that made their encouragement credible.
Every conversation had the potential to reveal another match.
When a Connection Changed the Road Ahead
Bruce Goldwell experienced Connection Capital directly when he and his best friend brought a coffee-business project into CEO Space.
They met a gentleman who listened to the project and explained what needed to happen next.
Once the company became compliant and insured, he said he was prepared to come aboard and connect the project with approximately 2,000 investors.
No capital changed hands that Thursday.
Yet something significant had changed.
The project now had:
a pathway,
a relationship,
a set of conditions that needed to be satisfied,
and a potential route to future capital.
That is Connection Capital.
Your Personal Connection Balance Sheet
Financial Capital
What financial resources can you deploy?
Intellectual Capital
What knowledge and experience do you possess?
Reputation Capital
What do people trust you for?
Relationship Capital
Who knows and trusts you?
Connection Capital
How effectively can you connect trusted people, useful knowledge and worthwhile opportunities?
Contribution Capital
What value are you known for adding before asking what you can receive?
How Much Connection Capital Have You Built?
Ask yourself:
If I contacted ten people today and said:
how many would respond because they trust my judgment?
Then turn the question around.
How many people would confidently introduce you?
What would they say?
Why would they believe you were worth knowing?
The answers reveal something about your reputation inside your network.
How to Increase Your Connection Capital
Listen carefully when people tell you what they are trying to accomplish.
Remember what people need.
Make thoughtful introductions.
Share useful resources.
Recommend good people publicly.
Follow through when you promise to connect someone.
Protect other people's trust.
Give credit.
Do not keep score after every act of contribution.
And become known for one simple reputation:
Connection Capital Is Human Conductivity
Connection Capital is one expression of Bruce Goldwell's larger Superconductor idea.
A human Superconductor recognizes that relationships, knowledge and opportunity do not have to stop with the person who receives them.
Someone helps you.
Later, you help someone else.
An opportunity reaches you that is not right for you.
You think of another person.
Someone needs expertise you do not possess.
You know someone who does.
The current continues.
The Superconductors II
The People Who Powered CEO Space and Changed Lives Through Connection, Leadership, and Possibility
Connection Capital is one of the central concepts explored in The Superconductors II.
The book examines what happens when people stop treating networks as collections of contacts and begin treating them as systems through which trust, knowledge, opportunity and possibility can move.
Explore Book II View Book II on Amazon