Mac's Musings
Networking in the Wilderness
27/01/2008You can net or network anywhere. At parties, business meetings, on trains, in bus queues - even in distant mountain bothies.
Bothies are a Scottish institution. Simple, restored cottages - no more than a stone tent - they offer shelter to walkers in remote areas of that beautiful country. And they don't get much more remote than the bothy at Shenevall which stands in a lonely setting in the shadow of one of the Highlands' most impressive mountains, An Teallach (Gaelic for The Anvil).
Shenevall, by the way, is not just isolated, it's also famously haunted. For this reason I avoided it and opted for a long walk out in the dark after an interesting solo winter traverse of An Teallach in December 1989.
But I digress. Airline pilot Tony Richardson, a fellow mountain walker I know slightly, dropped in for the night at Shenevall a couple of years ago. Two hardy Scots Munro baggers - collectors of Scottish hills over 3000ft - were already there. They were less than thrilled about this late night invasion by a Sassenach. But, with commendable Highland hospitality, they offered him a cup of tea. Tony responded by producing a bottle of Scotch. The chill thawed.
They inquired where he was from and he told them he'd come up from the Peak District. They questioned him further and Tony replied that he was from a little town they would never have heard of called New Mills.
'Ah! Then you'll know a dentist called Roy Higson,' one of them said triumphantly. Indeed he did. Roy is a long-time friend of Tony's and was recently rated the country's 4th most influential dentist. The Scottish hillwalkers turned out to be teeth-pullers too.
It had taken less than 30 seconds to make the connection. Networking or netting is much more than a business development skill. It's a way of life
