A Review: Never Eat Alone
by Ross Lenhart, Stein | November 1st, 2005Contributed by: Ross Lenhart
Senior Vice President, Stein Communications
My son, Clay, the computer guy, called and said, “Dad, you gotta read this book — it’s you.” Now that sparks my interest. His employer, the principal of a successful internet company, had suggested this book would be an effective tool for his employees. I am a reader — mainly non-fiction, love history — especially biography, and occasionally a good novel, but I am not one for diving into business “how-to” books. But since “it’s me” and Clay recommended it, I better take a look. I bought it, turned the first page of Never Eat Alone and, frankly, I couldn’t put it down.
Have you ever read something and, from your own experience, you keep saying to yourself, “This guy has hit the mark”? After 35 years in and around college admission and college marketing, Never Eat Alone made me realize that my work has been based solidly on relationships — the wonderful value of relationships — guidance counselors, faculties, prospective students, alumni, maintenance folks, coaches, competitors, hotel clerks, travel agents, board presidents, plane companions, writers, art directors, receptionists, and on and on. People who fill my memory and who forever will have my gratitude.
Keith Ferrazzi is a successful businessman, and now, in my mind, a wonderful wordsmith. He obviously is not “a high roller,” never to be caught on a reality show. He is more pure than that. He tells a tale of relationships and how success is about working with people, not against them. “Business is a human enterprise, driven and determined by people.” So is education. What makes this book perfect for the academy is Ferrazzi’s obvious gift of merging business with integrity. No Enron here. No compromising principle. Keith Ferrazzi is a self-made hard-nosed Western Pennsylvania guy who probably grew up loving gold and black, the Pirates and Steelers. He talked himself into the Kiski School on a scholarship on the way to a Yale undergraduate degree and a Harvard MBA, and made a lifelong friend of his Kiski Headmaster, Jack Pidgeon. I knew Jack myself when I would visit Kiski as a Director of Admissions from Marietta College many years ago. Jack would host a reception in his home for visitors in the evenings. Jack is a wonderful man who made an impression on me as well. Ferrazzi took away a valuable lesson from Jack and Kiski — “the currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.” — and “relationships are solidified by trust.” In my mind, this ethic is what makes this book special and makes Ferrazzi special. The lesson learned is that profit will only come if trust and integrity precede it.
Keith Ferrazzi makes his point through wonderful examples ranging from Paul Revere to Eleanor Roosevelt, and Bill Clinton to Katharine Graham, plus his own vast experiences. There are fascinating and well-told tales from his triumphs. A man of action, these experiences didn’t just happen, he made them happen. “Relationships are more like muscles — the more you work them, the stronger they become.” How to use the internet in your relationships, how to broadcast your brand, how to expand your circle — it’s all there and it is valuable stuff for you, the dedicated college, university, and school professionals who are in it not for the money, but for the process of education. You will find and understand and appreciate the obvious altruism in the pages of this book.
One last thought. I have never met Keith Ferrazzi. Recently, I felt that he might help me with a project that I was pursuing. I emailed a question to him. An answer came back from him with personal advice within eight hours. Jack Pidgeon built an entire institution at Kiski on his asking people not “How can you help me? but “How can I help you?” As a schoolboy at Kiski, Keith Ferrazzi learned his lessons well.
Thanks, Clay; call anytime with a suggestion of a good book.
