Art Imitates Life: I Remember Mama
There was this fantastic movie called I Remember Mama (1948) that is one of my favorites. When we were over at my Grandmother’s house for Mother’s Day, we ended up watching it (AMC tends to play it every Mother’s Day).
It’s about a young girl (Katrin) from an immigrant Norwegian family that wants to be a writer. After a bunch of rejections, she decides she wants to give up. As she’s telling her family she wants to give up her father notices there is a newspaper article from a very famous celebrity writer Mrs. Moorehead. Mrs. Moorehead’s advice, “Be sincere.” The young Katrin sighs and says something like, “Lot of help that is.” But her mother asks him to keep reading the article.
It mentions that Mrs. Moorehead has a love of cooking. Mama gets the thinking look and the scene fades out from Katrin’s bedroom to a hotel lobby.
Mama looks around and finds Mrs. Moorehead in the lobby. She introduces herself and tries to foist this huge pile of wrapped papers at her. Mrs. Moorehead says, “Oh, I never read unpublished authors.” Banter ensues until Mama says, “I have a goulash recipe from my great-grandmother in the old country, the secret ingredients would be different from anything you’ve ever had. Why don’t you look at the stories while I write down the recipe.” Mrs. Moorehead hesitates, then sighs, sits down, and reaches out for the stories.
Best. Networking. Ever.
Not only does Mama not feel intimidated even though it is made clear Mrs. Moorehead is a famous lady, a celebrity, Mama knows she has something that this woman will want. She knows that she can be heard. So she doesn’t worry about how famous she is, she figures it can’t hurt to try.
Mama comes home and tells Katrin she had two glasses of sherry and talked with the famous writer for two hours. They swapped recipes and got to know each other and Katrin’s stories were read and critiqued. (If you want to know what happens from that point forward, I’d recommend renting the movie, it’s really a good movie.)
While this example is from a movie, it happens every day and you can use this when you network as well. If someone has something you want, what do you have that you can provide in exchange? The answer could be as simple as a nice conversation, or it could be giving them your mother’s favorite recipe.
But you’ll never know if you don’t try!
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Tags: celebrity networking, i remember mama, sharingRelated Stories
POSTED IN: General Networking, Networking Tips
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