Would you forget you had a goldmine?

I am sure that if you were told that you had a gold mine in your garden, you would never forget that and you surely would prospect that gold, wouldn’t you?

Oh why, oh why do I have to be reminded of my goldmine over and over again?
I wrote about it in a previous post and I still didn’t think of my goldmine when going up North looking for properties.

Last weekend John and I had a really good time away up North and we saw the most stunning homes in the most unusual places.
All that because this time John used his goldmines; the people who are sitting right under his nose in his networks!

Not so the first time though. Before our very first trip the internet was the only place I could think off to find places to explore.
Okay, you would probably go there too, however the places we visited as a result of that search were not very inspiring.

Once we’d visited the web search results, driving off the beaten track was required to uncover a gem via a private sale sign.
As we walked up the drive to find the owner I knew we were in the kind of place I was looking for.
The property was surrounded by massive native forest.
Once we found the owner half way up his long drive he pointed out the piece of land for sale. After walking up another long steep drive we arrived on top of a hill and there it was, the most amazing view.
Never seen anything like it and we had a great time exploring the hill top and soaking up the glorious vista.
However sitting on a hill top, being exposed to the elements is not how I want to live, so after our fill we left.
Before we drove off though, I saw John taking the guy’s phone number off the sign and for a split second I wondered why and then let that thought go.

After coming home that first weekend I realized that a strategy other than looking on the internet was called for and John beautifully continued to demonstrate his prospecting of goldmines to me.

Now we roughly had a feel for the area, he started to connect with real people.
He didn’t go to the internet, looked up newspaper ads or Real Estate sites, he simply talked to real people he knew AND connected with his network.
Of course he also rang the guy from the private sale and simply asked if we could visit him next time we were up his way.
My mouth fell open as you can imagine, I would have never asked for that.
Why would I want to visit someone whose property I didn’t want to buy?

During that week he also mentioned to everyone he met or talked to that we were looking for people to connect with and of course that way we got another great contact we could go and visit.

As a result of his prospecting we had all these local people to visit, see their amazing places and we gathered a lot of local information that was gold.

We ended up with some interesting possibilities and people looking out for us.
And that beats searching the internet and official channels.

I did learn a lot from this exercise.

I think I am scared of prospecting amongst real people and using them as a resource.
I am so used to go to official channels for information, for services and for problem solving that I rarely think of my personal network when I want something.
And even when I think of people, most of the time I am too scared to ask them a favor.

But this week I did think of my goldmine and I did prospect.
I needed to scan some paperwork, sign it and email it back pronto.
So I was stuck as we don’t have a scanner. However after seeing John using his network I thought hard and fast and yes I found a scanner in the immediate neighborhood.
I remembered that a neighbor had showed me her new scanner once.
It was also the one we had some credit with as we let her overseas visitor use one of our cars.
So off I went to ask, still a bit reluctant though. But it worked.

It all sounds so simple and yet I have big blind spots when it comes to seeing my network of people as the most valuable resource in my life.
It makes me think.
I’ve learnt to accumulate money and yet it is the people right under my own nose who can give me the best leads and the best information that money cannot buy.
I’ve learnt to look after my money and yet do I take as much interest and care in looking after my network.

Okay mindgym again:

Observe how you go about getting information and finding solutions.
Observe how you prospect your goldmine, how your network has benefited you.
Observe how you look after your mine.