50 pages • 1 hour read
Keith FerrazziNever Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2005A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Section 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Section 1: “The Mind-Set”
Section 1, Chapter 1 Summary: “Becoming a Member of the Club”
Ferrazzi describes how his childhood experience caddying at a wealthy country and golf club taught him the lessons of networking that he uses to this day. Active relationship building is defined in this chapter as a way “to make a difference in people’s lives as well as a way to explore and learn and enrich [one’s] own” (7). The purpose of the book is stated in clear terms: to help people to “become the center of a circle of relationships, one that will help you succeed throughout life” (13). This chapter also includes a list of outcomes that the authors argue will emerge when living a life of building relationships, arguing that connection is engaging, creates stability, and is good for both individuals and organizations.
Section 1, Chapter 2 Summary: “Don’t Keep Score”
Chapter 2 begins with a story about Ferrazzi telling a group of college students about the key to success. “‘So you want the inside scoop,’ I respond. ‘Fair enough. I’ll sum up the key to success in one word: generosity” (14). The benefits of generosity are included in another list:
- Friends remain while business comes and goes.
- Prioritize giving.
- The business world is “fluid” and “competitive”; you have to be a brand.
- “Contribute.”
- “[R]each out” and remember when others did the same for you.
Section 1, Chapter 3 Summary: “What’s Your Mission”
Ferrazzi stresses the importance of goal-setting, which necessarily includes giving back to communities. Three steps are outlined in this chapter: Find Your Passion, Putting Goals to Paper, and Create a Personal “Board of Advisors.” In one example, the authors describe Virginia Feigles, a hair-dresser-turned-engineer who used goal-setting strategies to achieve her dream. As an avid-connector and driven individual, Feigles grew her network while focusing on her goals. By using a detailed plan, she achieved her goals and expanded her network with success after graduating as an engineer.
The authors introduce the Relationship Action Plan (RAP) which explains how to practice generosity by carefully outlining how individual missions and goals can connect and help with the people, places, and things that help others to succeed.
This is the first chapter to include a Connector’s Hall of Fame Profile. These profiles highlight a specific figure (Bill Clinton in this chapter) who used their ability to connect as means to amass powerful relationships and mutual success in their career. The authors believe that “Clinton illustrates how charming and popular you can become, and remain, when you treat everyone you meet with sincerity” (42).
Section 1, Chapter 4 Summary: “Build It Before You Need It”
Ferrazzi tells readers how to create a community that can help further their career and the careers of others. The authors describe this practice using the metaphor of a garden. The authors claim that most people see their “cleanly-cut grass” that represents their closest, immediate relationships: friends, coworkers, and business partners. The real network, however, “is an overgrown jungle with an infinite variety of hidden nooks and crannies that are being neglected” (47). Most people have the potential opportunities for connection of which they do not take advantage. The authors suggest that, to truly capitalize on a community of relationships, people need to forage through their immediate and distant networks of people and communicate their goals and mission to them.
Section 1, Chapter 5 Summary: “The Genius of Audacity”
Ferrazzi describes how readers can learn the willingness to take risks in their relationship-building activities. Ferrazzi tells personal stories that describe Ferrazzi’s education, from high school to graduate school, and the influence that his father has had on his own networking strategy. The author tells us that, despite being a working-class steelworker, Ferrazzi’s father went out of his way to meet the people who would make his son successful. The list in this section outlines tips for being audacious in social situations, encouraging readers to look for a “role model,” and to overcome shyness or hesitancy.
Section 1, Chapter 6 Summary: “The Networking Jerk”
Ferrazzi shows readers how not to be overzealous and insincere in their networking efforts. Ferrazzi tells a story about his own failures as a newly-appointed member of the Executive Committee at Deloitte. The anecdote describes how Ferrazzi’s office was decorated with pictures and awards only related to himself. An executive coach, Nancy Badore, bluntly told him that his office conveys a hyper-individualized mission, rather than a genuine concern for his subordinates and colleagues. At the end of this section, the authors provide a list on how not to become a “jerk” at work, conferences, and social events. The list emphasizes authenticity, transparency, and graciousness in communication, and advises against ingratiation, gossip, expediency, and arrogance.
This section includes another Connector’s Hall of Fame Profile on Katharine Graham. Katharine Graham took over The Washington Post newspaper after her husband, Philip Graham, passed away. Katherine Graham worked not just at networking to enhance the status of her newspaper, but also built a web of friends by gaining admiration and trust. Across political lines, Graham established a reputation as someone devoted to “building her boundaries and cultivating trust in others,” even those considered enemies (65).
Section 1 Analysis
The Preface to Never Eat Alone uses the conventional strategies of the self-help genre in a few brief and concentrated pages. This initial story about the Summit Series provides the credibility that Never Eat Alone is a book already implemented by some of the world’s most successful people. This Preface is added to the 2014 version to enhance the audience’s perception of the book’s reputation. From 2005 to 2012, the authors claim, real people used the strategies in their book to make their networks larger and more robust. In this way, the 2014 update substantiates the message and purpose of the 2005 version.
Throughout the text, the authors deploy bolded lists, a conventional rhetorical style in the self-help genre containing practical and actionable advice. Bolded text allows the reader to clearly see the paragraph headers that relate to the overall topic and argument. Although simply formatted, bolded text provides readers with a visual stimulus related to important words and phrases. The concise language and bolded text functions as mnemonic devices that help readers to remember the book’s content. It is also an aid for learning in that readers can speed-read through the text using the numbered and bulleted lists and paragraph headers to recall important information. The short chapters, anecdotal stories, and bolded lists make Never Eat Alone a text designed for quick reading and accessible revisiting to locate key concepts.
The “equation” in the Preface encapsulates the “science” behind the book’s message. The use of anecdotes and lists, as well as the appropriation of arithmetic or scientific jargon to convey ideas, establishes the central rhetorical strategies of Never Eat Alone. The authors substantiate their claims by referencing experts in the field of business and organizational leadership.
The authors begin their first section, “The Mind Set,” by establishing the theme of Networking by discussing the importance of building a network of meaningful relationships. By using the principles outlined in the text, the authors argue that anyone can create a personalized and effective method for networking and working with others for mutual benefit. The authors argue that, before anyone can start building these networks, they need to change their mindsets and goals from individual focus to global, community awareness. The theme of GVAC: Generosity, Vulnerability, Accountability, Candor plays a central part in organizing the advice and principles in the text surrounding Networking; in Chapter 2, the authors particularly emphasize generosity.
The outline of Chapters 1 through 6 follow the conventional format of a self-help and business advice book. Ferrazzi and Raz present a problem and promise readers a practical and viable solution. The problem that the authors address is the emphasis on individual leadership in business. Success, they argue, cannot be achieved without the help of others. The solution is to build a robust and relationship-driven network made up of peers, associates, contacts, mentors, mentees, and other connectors. The immediate presentation of a solution engages the reader by building their trust that reading on will solve their problems.
Section 1 addresses the mental changes to which readers must commit in order to succeed in building a meaningful network. The authors develop the evidence behind these principles using Ferrazzi’s life experiences. In fact, the authorial presence of Tahl Raz goes mostly unnoticed throughout the text, aside from the author attribution. This book is about Ferrazzi’s story, something that underscores the book’s theme of Branding, since the book falls under Ferrazzi’s brand. Raz’s authorial invisibility is as much a rhetorical strategy as any other. By hiding the hand of Raz’s pen, Ferrazzi’s personality stands out to the readers even more.
This section includes two Connector’s Hall of Fame Profiles: Bill Clinton and Katharine Graham. Both of these individuals are matched within their respective chapters as examples of how the greatest networkers embody the rules outlined in Never Eat Alone.
