Transportation Networking

Arturo, my youngest son, enrolled this semester to a high school that is far away from where we live. This has made that he develop some networking skills. He says that he didn't learned that from me... but I love to tell this story, because the parents example is then copied by the kids.

It happens that there is a transportation that takes him and brings him back from his high school, but the nearest point that the route could bring him is about a 50 minute walk, it means its about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from where we live. In the mornings, we organize ourselves to drop him in my way to work. But in the afternoon, he usually arrives earlier than me, so he has made some arrangements to solve his transportation problem.

The first thing he do, was to meet his bus peers, then he watched the ones that lived on his way, and when the mother of one of his friends offered a ride to the other bus stop, he took her word and get the first walk free.

When he arrived to the bus stop, he realized that there was a lot of people waiting, and when the bus finally arrived, it has no place to get up. That happened with 3 different buses. So one of the guys standing there say out loud: "I'm heading to Cacalote, do someone want to share a cab?", with my son, 2 more people say yes, and shared a taxi, they save some money, and get to know some other ways to solve the transportation problem.

The last time, he didn't get to board the bus, neither share a ride, so he started walking and eventually the former owner of the transportation company that give him service, ask if he want a lift, of course Arturo, get into the van and thank "Pepe" his gesture.

With this story in mind, my recommendations to do some networking are:

1.- Get to know the people that do the same activities than you, like being students at your same high school, it will give you some confidence token and you may seize the advantages like getting some free rides.

2.- When some other people need the same service than you, try to share, this will become really useful if you are on vacation, you may get the opportunity to meet people, and get some good discounts.

3.- Have some friends with people that you used to have services from, and having a good relationship, will allow you to get recognized and offer you some type of help.

Have you lived an experience that you want to share?