Original subtitles

So what about non-professional events.

So for non-professional events these obviously are any events that are not professional that don't that

don't exist just for networking or for professional reasons.

Very often when I mentioned non-professional events the big the first thing that comes to people's mind

is golf.

And I understand this.

I I was in business school in the 90s and back then a lot of people would say that you know you should

take up golf.

They would say stuff like old business deals are made on the golf course and you know golf is business

person sport et cetera et cetera.

So there was kind of this idea that if you go to these events that are non-professional then you know

golf is something that you should do and golf is a sport you should take up and golf is an activity

a hobby that you should have.

And so yeah I remember I was practicing golf trying to learn golf.

I had I had a roommate actually who was very much into golf and he was kind of showing me the ropes.

And I even took a course our school offered an elective course in golf and I took this course and but

I realized after a while that well first of all I didn't enjoy it that much.

I didn't really like playing golf all that much.

And my favorite part was going to the clubhouse after and having a hotdog and.

And then later on it took me a while but I also ended up doing a kind of a quick calculation and this

calculation I tried to figure out you know sort of the amount of time the energy the money that I'd

be spending on learning golf.

So this is you know all the time that it would take me to kind of learn golf semi normally semi well

and all the basically all the money that it would cost me you know for the clubs for the balls for the

membership because membership isn't cheap for this stuff.

Very often for the attire because golfers have all their own attire you know to join these clubs and

to spend weekends and days off or whenever it is afternoons with other people or with friends or whoever

might be playing golf that this was a very serious investment.

And at a certain point I was kind of wondering how much money am I going to have to make in these deals

that I make on a golf course for a hit from to break even or to make this profitable.

And so after a while I started getting to my head that this might be worth it if you do enjoy golf and

or if you if the deals that you're talking about are multimillion dollar deals if you're in high finance

or if you're in like really high end real estate or something like that then yeah.

Then maybe one of these deals can pay off for this whole investment in golf.

But let's face it most of us aren't in that in that situation and most of the deals we do they can be

quite lucrative but they probably aren't worth trying to fake it through years and years of golf just

because we think you know it could be possibly a good investment because it's always a gamble you never

know maybe you won't make any deals on the golf course and quite frankly I think it's losing a bit of

its popularity anyway.

Having said all that it's just to say that very often you hear similar things like this I've heard a

similar thing in Europe regarding polo and my general recommendation is just to find something you enjoy

if you enjoy something then that's probably the best thing to be doing.

And so for example if you enjoy cycling then you find a cycling club and they meet every weekend or

every other weekend or wherever my being goes cycle somewhere new.

Then that's the thing you should join because you're going to you're going to enjoy it.

First of all you're going to meet other people who have the same passion you do so you'll enjoy talking

about it with them comparing notes and giving each other advice et cetera et cetera.

And even if you have to make an investment say a bike or the time you take it's going to be pleasurable

and it's worth it for you.

And in essence you want to choose something that even if you don't get any business out of it you still

find worth it.

And so I know this is for networking and this course is for you trying to increase your business let's

say.

But with non-professional events I think it's best to concentrate on something that you already enjoy

doing because not only is it less risky because you'll get more out of it but also it shows the fact

that you enjoy it will show and everyone else will notice and it'll make it that much more likely that

you actually make better and more sincere friends out of this activity.

So some other types of examples they don't necessarily even need to be sports like just as as an example

here in a language exchange language learning this could be some other type of group that maybe you

could enjoy book clubs school alumni groups so forget those if you attended a certain university college

or high school or whatever and they have alumni groups then by all means.

These can be fun and and good things to get involved with a country specific groups are also interesting

if you're from a different country or have an interest in a different country by the way.

This doesn't even need to be if there is a French group or like the French embassy or French association

or anyone says has something close to you you don't need to be French or even speak French to join you

could just decide that I like French wine I like French food and I want to join and I mean I attend

a lot of country specific groups and there are plenty of people that are not from that country but they're

just interested in it and they're always welcome.

Obviously any sport or hobby you might have could be interesting groups centered around games or movies

you enjoy no board games are a big thing now.

So if you're into those you can probably find a group where you can share that with other people.

Another thing to remember is that you can also create your own group.

You know if you're interested in something and say board games but there is no group close to you right

now that meets together to have board games and you can always set one up meetup dot com.

Once again this is they make it quite easy I think intonations if you're a member or least if you're

an albatross member is something you can sort of create your own groups anyway if you have some passion

if you want to meet people you up for board games or I don't know even just for eating out and you know

you like to go someplace nice to meet once a month or whatever it might be and the group doesn't exist

yet.

Feel free to create it because you never know who else might be interested in it and in fact very often

you'll be surprised.