There's No Secret Formula to Being Good at Networking — But There Is One Thing You Need Is the journey to success in business networking bound by mathematical formulas, or is it about something else? Here's what I've found is the actual secret to making connections in networking.

Decades ago, I went to a breakout session at a BNI conference that was called "The Mathematical Formula for Networking Success." Well, as the founder of the organization, I absolutely had to see this presentation to learn the working formula for successful business networking.

The speaker began his presentation by writing a formula on the flip chart. He talked about "D" representing Dunbar's average number of relationships and "M" representing Metcalf's law (also known as the Squared Connection Effect). He continued with a very convoluted and confusing formula doing the square root of one thing and multiplying it by something that seemed totally irrelevant to me.

He hesitated as he spoke to us. He put his fingertips to his lips and hemmed and hawed in his presentation. It was uncomfortably clear to all of us that he was confused and bewildered by his own formula. Not only that, but we were also very confused and bewildered by his formula as well. We all sat there feeling pretty embarrassed for him.