Living on the margin, in any capacity is not healthy. If you make $50K and you live to your means and spend $50K then there is no room or margin for error. In other words, when those inevitable breakdowns happen, you get stressed and have to scramble for the extra money making life a little tougher. Doesn't the dishwasher or your car transmission fail at the worst times? Typically, as we make more money, we spend more money because isn't that the reason we strived to make more money in the first place? It's definitely a consumer mindset we are all vulnerable to and upon which the media and advertising directly focuses on since it's our obvious weakness.
Networking on the margin is equally as stressful and detrimental as living on the financial margin. You go out to events, shake hands, pass out cards, chit chat and move on to the next event. Once you go to one mixer, sure enough you will be invited to others and as you gain momentum, you will see your weekdays and nights filling up with events. At first you feel great; most of us are animals that by nature like to be included in groups because it strengthens our sense of belonging and self esteem but soon you find yourself with no "down time" to follow up and strengthen those valuable relationships which you made so much effort to initiate in the first place. The margin allows for those spontaneous meetings which often come up because someone wants to review an idea or project with you. How can you have time for those unplanned events when you're rushing around from one group meeting to the next? If you try to squeeze everything in then you end up short changing your business and family because you won't have enough energy to juggle all of it. Networking and allowing yourself time to follow up, make calls and spontaneously set up meetings with key contacts is only possible when you have allotted scheduled gaps of time to be free.
The margin in your life, whether it's financial, networking, relationships or whatever you invest your energy into is that gap of resources which you don't allocate and leave open and free to allow for the unplanned events which happen in life. My feeling is that special things happen in the "margin" because since circumstances and our energies are always shifting, it always you to accommodate for those events in a stress-free fashion. Living below your means, only keeping a handful of close relationships near you, networking within your capacity to follow up and build strong relationships makes life much more manageable and productive.

Lester M. Salvatierra has 15 years experience as a licensed Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance. He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects nationwide. He is passionate about referral marketing and is a business networking coach in Ventura County, California. Sign up now to follow his business networking blog at: http://theRogueNetworker.com

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