Connections

For entrepreneurs, nothing is more important than their connections. Dictionary.com, the free, on-line dictionary, gives 18 definitions for connection. Among them:

The act or state of connecting; The state of being connected, as in the connection between cause and effect; Anything that connects, as in connecting part, link, bond; Association, relationship, as in the connection between crime and poverty; A circle of friends or associates or a member of such a circle; A group of persons connected as by political or religious ties; Associates, relations, acquaintances, or friends, esp. representing or having some influence or power.

Connections comprise your social capital, one of the three things the entrepreneur brings to the competitive arena. Your connections supply you with information and opportunity, potential employees or business partners, and a chance to expand your reach. The best way for an enetrepreneur to get his or her products sold is to have them recommended by someone else. That's one area that the power of social capital, or, connections, manifests itself.If you're interested in all the definitions, consult the whole article.

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Entrepreneurship informs everything I do. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog. For entrepreneurial writing, go to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.

Interpersonal Ties

This, from Wikipedia, the free, on-line encyclopedia, about interpersonal ties:

In mathematical sociology, interpersonal ties are defined as information-carrying connections between people. Interpersonal ties, generally, come in three varieties: strong, weak, or absent. Weak social ties, it is argued, are responsible for the majority of the embeddedness and structure of social networks in society as well as the transmission of information through these networks. Specifically, more novel information flows to individuals through weak rather than strong ties. Because our close friends tend to move in the same circles that we do, the information they receive overlaps considerably with what we already know. Acquaintances, by contrast, know people that we do not, and thus receive more novel information. Included in the definition of absent ties, according to Granovetter, are those relationships (or ties) without substantial significance, such as "nodding" relationships between people living on the same street, or the "tie", for example, to a frequent vendor one would buy from. Furthermore, the fact that two people may know each other by name does not necessarily qualify the existence of a weak tie. If their interaction is negligible the tie may be absent. The "strength" of an interpersonal tie is a linear combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the intimacy (or mutual confiding), and the reciprocal services which characterize each tie.

Anyone interested in these ideas should read the entire Wikipedia article, follow the links, and read the references.

Entrepreneurs needs to know this body of information so that they can analyze their social capital. We have very rich tools to analyze our financial fundamentals. Mathematical sociology gives us tools to analyze our social fundamentals.

All my professional activities are entrepreneurial. And if this grabs you, post a comment. For entrepreneurial real estate, go to www.yourstopforrealestate.com/blog and for entrepreneurial writing, to www.kearneymusicschoolmurders.blogspot.com.