When it comes to big pictures, networking is the way you link your vision for your business and career to those of the rest of the world.

If you are on track in your business and professional life, you network every day, forging and enhancing connections that will reap future rewards.

Networking is a numbers game. Just as you don't get an airline upgrade without the mileage, you don't have a network to call on unless you put in the time to develop it. You have to do your time in the air before you make it to first class. You have to invest time and energy making connections in order to build a first-class network.

As any career counselor will tell you, once you've reached the required level of technical expertise in your field, career advancement depends on the relationships you establish. Make sure you're doing this important work well by networking effectively. Here's how:

• Networking is about contact. It's eye contact, face-to-face contact, phone contact, e-mail contact. It's contact with people you can help and who can help you. Make these contacts with grace: have good posture, relax, and smile. (Yes, even when you're on the telephone or at the computer.)

• Be the one to initiate. Keep your eyes and ears open to prospects. Learn to recognize a potential business friend. That person may be at a professional seminar, at a community event, in the airplane seat next to you, at the health club, a friend of a friend, a friend of a vendor, even someone you read about in newspapers or magazines. Be human and humorous in your contact.

• Be bold. Put your fears aside or at least get them out of the way, and approach the scariest person first. The rest will be a lot easier.

• Anticipate discomfort. What is new is frequently uncomfortable. Trust me, though, eventually you will be more at ease, especially when it starts paying off. Ease the pain by keeping the contact simple and specific.

• Expect acceptance. Believe that you are adequate in this potential relationship. If you don't receive acceptance, don't feel rejected. Remember that the person you?re approaching probably also has a list of prospective business friends he or she hopes to develop. You may not be on that list at this time. Be patient. Things change for everyone.

• Pass it on. When you seek opportunities to help someone else by referring them, you become known as a center of influence. People will come to you.

• Always respond. Answer every telephone call, e-mail message, and letter. They might be someone's attempt at networking with you and you never know where it might lead.

How do you know when your networking is working? Things happen. People invite you into business meetings or conversations when they don't have to. They seek you out because they've heard of you and your capabilities. Your name gets passed upwards and outwards. You receive calls from people you've never heard of inside and outside the company.

Networking may not seem all that important in the crush of the daily to-do list, until you need a network to call on. Then, it may well be too late. The day-to-day work of networking is a solid way to stay connected with your big picture plans even as you take smaller steps toward realizing them. A network of contacts helps you extend and grow your business and career and allows you to help others in the same endeavor. A solid network also provides a hedge against the future. In times of challenge, these are the people you'll call.

A network is a safety net. Work to keep yours tight and strong by tending to it every day.

Nearsightedness (a.k.a. myopia) affects about one-third of the population. The nearsighted eye is not able to focus on distant objects. People who are nearsighted can see things up-close just fine, but have difficulty performing tasks like driving and reading street signs. As an entrepreneur, regardless of the condition of your eyes, if you're not careful, your business can very easily suffer from a form of nearsightedness as well.

In the daily grind to get things done, both seasoned corporate players and new entrepreneurs alike can sometimes lose sight of why they got into the game in the first place. Without a sharp view of the horizon, they lose their way on the path to long-term success because they get caught up in one cycle of minutiae after another, or they waste precious time by taking detours misread as opportunities.

Nobody likes getting lost, especially entrepreneurs with a lot at stake. When you embark upon a new business venture, it's easy to forget how nonlinear the road to success can be. But those with a clear vision of where they're going and how they're going to get there are more capable of handling any potential twists and turns along the way. On the other hand, entrepreneurs without that sense of context and purpose, often find themselves confused about what to do next. Why? They're not able to clearly see where they are at any given moment.

When it comes to eyes, nearsightedness can be corrected with glasses, contact lenses, or refractive surgery. In business, having a well thought-out mission statement written down (and always nearby) can help correct your company's myopia.

Companies use mission statements as a navigation tool to help prevent getting lost. A mission statement for a business can be like a minus lens for a nearsighted eye; it alleviates the stress to allow objects in the distance to come into full focus.
When presented with multiple paths and daily challenges, long-lasting companies often refer back to a mission statement to help guide their decision-making process. This brief, but powerful, declaration of your company's purpose and values can provide a strong sense of confidence and comfort as you deal with emergencies and explore new territory.

Consider Starbucks. As big and diverse as the coffee giant's business is, the organization spends more on employee benefits than they do on coffee beans. In the book Pour Your Heart into It, Starbucks chairman Howard Shultz wrote, -I tried to make Starbucks the kind of company I wish my dad had worked for.- Shultz envisioned a company with good health benefits, stock options, and an overall culture of openness, responsiveness, and respect. And if you were to refer to the company's mission statement, you would see their main guiding principle: Provide a great work environment.

Knowing where you are in the grand scheme of things and understanding how what you're doing right now fits into and supports the big picture of your business can be the difference between knowing how to proceed and feeling lost.

When day-to-day tasks bog you down, a clear mission statement can give you the confidence to make tough decisions as well as reassure you when you're on the right path.

Sometimes you can lose sight of the big picture, especially as you grow and expand your business. But living up to the goals and values that you spell out when you first get started can help you manage overloads and stay focused.

Ultimately, a clear big picture gives an entrepreneur the context for what he or she does and does not do. And without a strong context, your business is like a nearsighted person driving in the rain without his or her glasses on.