It's not who you know, it's what you know

The adage "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is mostly false.

Let's look at the facts: who are the richest people?

Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, J.K. Rowling. Did it matter WHO they knew? No.

It's WHAT they knew!

The fact is, the smarter you are, the more people will do anything to meet you and connect with you. If you have to network, then you have not yet reached a point in your career where you truly shine.

Does this mean networking is not necessary or that who you know doesn't matter? Of course not.

My point is only that most people just assume that WHO they know is more important than WHAT they know, when it's clear that we live in a "knowledge" economy, not a "connections" economy.

In fact, now that the Internet and social networking software is so ubiquitous, it is more important than ever to focus on developing one's brainpower. That, in my opinion, is the hard part. Networking is easy. (It's just a click away).