Usually I learn the best lessons of my life from the perspective of a child. Kids are wonderfully aware of the world in the most direct kind of way, yet the lessons they learn are the same ones that so many of us miss. 

Tonight I was watching my son play with a young boy that was his age. They quickly bonded and became best friends on the playground. The boy was a cute little guy with a red shirt and blue jeans, dressed almost identically to my son. Yet his father had tied a bright red balloon to his belt so that it danced happily above him by several feet.

Half an hour the two boys became separated. My son was very dismayed by the occurrence. He searched the crowded playground for ten minutes looking for his friend and simply couldn’t find him. There were now three red balloons on the playground, and all of them were being held by adults.

He came to me with this frown on his face and said “Dad, I can’t find my friend. I even look for his balloon and its gone.” 

I thought about it for a second and quickly realized his dilemma. I told my son to go around and ask questions of the people holding the three red balloons, and sure enough he found the boys father. He had also found two new friends by speaking to the parents holding the other two balloons. 

I often think of business like this. I see a lot of my colleagues jumping to conclusions about what the red balloon represents to them. I also see them frequently falling under the false idea that the red balloon isn’t the same balloon they are looking for. 

Now think of it like this- the red balloon is a social network. It is the after hours cocktail party at the lounge down the street. The red balloon is not the end goal, it is merely the most notable item of merit. The red balloon serves as a target to ask questions of people and to introduce yourself. The simple act of them holding a red balloon give you a reason to network, and even if its not the exact thing you were looking for- there is a likely chance the person holding a red balloon is standing in the bulls-eye of your target market. 

For my son, adopting the idea to step outside his box and introduce himself to the world opened the door for him to meet two new friends by virtue of their parents holding a red balloon.

For the networking professional, adopting this idea is an easy way to use word of mouth introductions to convey the message of what you are looking for in a friendly socially accpetable manner.