Thin Numbers.docx

7/30/2019 Thin Numbers.docx

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The Law of Thin Numbers

And Its Significance in Effective Business Networking

ThinNumbers is an organization, that unlike most social networking entities, creates

relationships that are genuine, helpful, and personal. Dedicated to facilitating the

development of individual business associations that are global in scope, ThinNumbers is

a virtual "chamber of commerce," built for the Connected Age. Conceived and developed

using scientific theory, ThinNumbers utilizes mathematics, psychology, and sociology to

create an organization that is both unique and effective. Here, associates share

connections, knowledge, and information in order to further the capabilities of all.

Executive Summary

We are born networking. Our first networking experience came with us hanging by our

heels and a doctors hand giving us a sharp pat on a bare behind. In this instance, we cried out

and announced emphatically that we had arrived, were a little bewildered, and would like some

attention as soon as possible.

We continue to network for the rest of our lives. Of course, weve all heard the

expression its not what you know, its who you know and we held this as gospel. But, as it

turns out, the saying is only half rightits not just what you know or who you know; it might

be what or who the person you know knows. Thats the key aspect of networking and its

especially true with the expansion of the virtual world, where time and space is rendered

meaningless.

Business networking typically falls into two extremes. As a participant, you either

network with people you know or you are an open networker. In the former, you use the

networking site like a constantly updating little black book. For this type of person, networking

is a closed society and your ability to grow and meet new people is dependent on your actual

geography and physical presence. The disadvantage to this technique is that you lose the whole

advantage of networking virtuality. You have to be actually present to win.

The latter, open networking, means that youll interface with anyone at all. While this

obviously increases your scope of contacts, the relationships tend to be superficial, if even that,


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because you are connected to complete strangers. These are un-relationships. Its almost like

you are networking for networkings sake, as ifnetworking was a giant scoreboard andcollecting contacts means you are running up the score. Yet, you can never win because the

contacts you have or simply numbers, no more and no less.

What is needed to accomplish effective business networking is something in between that

takes advantage of the closed or open networking technique. Such would be a place where one

can take advantage of the vast virtual world yet have a genuine bond with the people that you are

networked with. Wouldnt it be great to have a vast array of contacts and every one truly

connected to you?

But how can we accomplish this? Current business networking and collaboration sites

are valuable but inherently flawed. The basic institution is scientifically flawed and the

connections that you accomplish there lack validity. The purpose of ThinNumbers is to build

a foundation for broad business networking where the relationships might be virtual yet

they are truly and genuinely real.

This paper details this challenge and hopefully points to a way that you and I are going to

solve it.

Introduction

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social media outlets have proven the

world is a mighty small place. We can now build relationships virtually and continuouslythe

rules of time and space are no longer binding. However, while it is true that we can reach

anyone, anywhere in our virtual existence, the affiliations that we are building are largelysuperficial and for the most part, have little value. We really never know the people we are

linked to and they never really know us.

The Science of Social Networking

Many people dont realize but there is a great deal of science behind the dynamic of

social networking. Of course, that should be no real surprise because the study of the

functioning of society is a science in and of itself (called sociology). The following is a

sample of theories upon which social networking is founded. In addition, presented to are

contending scientific principles where current social and business networking websites either fall

short or fail to consider at all.


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I. Separation TheoryBusiness-focused, social networking sites in the virtual world are loosely based on

separation theory, a concept derived by Harvard professor Stanley Milgrams 1967

small world experiment. The intent of this study was to determine the

interconnectedness of people throughout the United States. Milgram utilized a mailed

package. This package began in the hands of a starter who was simply a person chosen

at random to participate in the study. The starters job, if they chose to participate, was to

direct this package toward a specific destination person, who, as far as Milgram knew,

was a complete stranger to the starter. There was a caveatin their effort to deliver the

package, the starter could only forward same to intermediaries who they actually knew on

a first-name basis.

To help the package along on its journey, the starter was left to devise their own methodto forward the package on toward the destination. Most used the destination persons

geographic location to help guide them. The packages were tracked with postcards to

determine how many intermediate acquaintances it took to complete the journey.

Milgram discovered the median number of transfers that the package went through from

starter to destination was five and a half or six. Thus the experiments conclusion was

that anyone could make contact with any other person utilizing their own six degrees of

separation (which became a popular parlor gameSix Degrees of Kevin Bacon;

Google will even let you search for any persons Bacon Number to determine the

number of degrees said person is to Mr. Bacon). Sites like LinkedIn have an abbreviated

basis on separation theory.

In 2008, an updated small world experiment was conducted by Microsoft. This tested

electronic mail as opposed to physically mailed packages. The conclusion of the study

showed that the average chain of contacts, from starter to destination (all users of the

Microsoft Messenger Service) was 6.6 people. Though the technology was different, the

test confirmed that the six degree phenomenon present in separation theory applied to

electronic media as well.

While it is wonder that we can seemingly connect ourselves to practically anyone else on

the planet via a short chain of individuals, one fact overlooked in this small world

concept as applied to business networking is that in Milgrams experiment, nearly 80% of

the packages never reached the destination. Thus, one could conclude that separation

theory is hardly an efficient or reliable foundation for business networking. (Imagine the

uproar if only 20% of your letter handled by the U. S. Mail were actually delivered).


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II. The Law of the FewIn his book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell amended the six degree phenomenon

with the concept of information funneling which he encapsulates in The Law of The

Few. Gladwell proved that this chain of connections in separation theory is dependent

on a few extraordinary people which Gladwell called connectors, mavens, and

salesmen.

Connectors facilitate the nascent link between various individuals by their habit of

making introductions into the large group of people that they know. Mavens are

information specialists. Gladwell contends that we rely upon [Mavens] to connect us

with new information who beyond being knowledgeable, also freely dispense such

knowledge. Finally, Salesmen are people who have an indefinable trait that goes

beyond what they say which makes people want to agree with them. So, it might not bejust who you know, but what kind of person you know is.

Indeed, the Gladwells funnel idea could easily be applied is applied to Milgrams small

world experiment. In a supplemental networking experiment, Milgram tracked 160

packages originally mailed to starters. Surprisingly, the return path of the packages was

not evenly distributed. Of the 24 that reached the target person, a surprising 16 of that

number was randomly funneled through one individual. (Note again, that the all that

package mailing only had a 15% success rate of reaching the target). In other words, a

majority of the packages that went from starter to destination went through just one

person who in very real respects, was a funnel for the package transfer.

Thus, present in any chain of people that we might depend on for business contacts andknowledge are people who are naturally connected to other people orwho are

compelled to connect us to new information. These people funnel both other people and

other information. The challenge is how to find these people who are such a rare

commodity.

III. Expectancy TheoryIt is an unfortunate and simple truth that most people do not tend to voluntarily help

strangers. This is especially true when it comes to business relationships. Consider what

I call the stranger introduction request. Youre at a party when a perfect stranger

comes up to you and having seen you conversing with another particular party goer, asksif you would make an introduction to that person. Would you make such an

introduction? The answer is probably no, at least not without some qualification.


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Similarly, the expectation of receiving assistance in a social network by someone who is,

in the literal sense, a stranger yet who is virtually linked to you via the network is quitelimited. There are explicit psychological reasons why this is true: (a) the discomfort of

being among strangers; (b) the desire not to burden those who trust us with some matter

that is not pleasant or beneficial; and/or (c) there is no personal motivation for us to

perform the action (and thus overcome all of the negatives involved).

It is this last reason upon which expectancy theory is founded. According to

expectancy theory, a person will decide to behave or act in a certain way because they are

motivated by their own personal (and perhaps selfish) desirability of the outcome of their

actions. In the above scenario, it could be that we might not wish to impose upon

someone who we know beholds us as a confidant. Then again, it could be that, as

suggested, there is simply no upside for us to do the stranger a favor.

Salespeople are generally familiar with expectancy theory because they are taught that

prospects will not make a buying decision until you discover what the particular benefit

would be for them to acquire your product or service. The acronym, WIIFM or

Whats In It For Me is commonly used to describe this relationship. (Of note, I coined

the acronym WIIFM while teaching at the AT&T National Training Center, Aurora, CO

in 1984. I was tasked with developing and delivering a new sales training curriculum and

derived the theory from concepts presented in the 1977 book Looking Out for Number

One, by Robert J. Ringer). Prospects make a buying decision when the salesperson helps

the buyer discover inherent value in the proposed product or service. When this is done,

the buyer is highly motivated because expectancy theory is being served. Thus, the

bottom line of the WIIFM concept is that people will generally act according to what

outcome is best for them personally.

Many miss the point of expectancy theory when it comes to business networking. Some

social networking participants automatically and blatantly market their products and

services to strangers who are unlucky enough to open network with them. In this

instance, because you have merely connected to them, you have automatically become a

suspect their product or service. Of course, you might not fit as a qualified prospect for

such an offering but no mattertheyre goal is to sell you something and away they go!

Not only is such an act inconsistent with expectancy theory but it is also contra to the

most effective sales technique (i.e. solution selling), where one is tasked with discovering

the WIIFM of the prospective customer.

Furthermore, this general broadcast of look at meand see what Im selling does not

jibe with The Law of the Few. Certainly not everyone to whom a person is virtually and

blindly distributing information to is a free connector or a maven. Indeed, most of the


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victims of such unwelcome spam are probably outside what is the usual target market for

such products or services. A rational person would understand that blindly marketing toa host of unqualified suspects is largely a waste of time. As in the case of the stranger

introduction request, there is certain sense that the stranger is not only minimizing you,

but being disrespectful as well.

As in Milgrams experiment, if the package is being passed from person to person and

you are simply a conduit, are you really willing to pass the package along? In the small

world experiment, the high failure rate suggests that many people evidently were not so

willing.

IV. Dunbar NumberIn 1992, British anthropologist Robin Dunbar suggested that there was a cognitive limit

to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships, that is

relationships in which an individual knows each person and how each person relates to

every other person. The so-called Dunbar number was proposed to lie between 100

and 230 people, with 150 individuals being the most commonly used value. Historically,

in the hunter/gatherer epoch, villages tended to split up (and in the current age,

neighborhoods lose cohesiveness) when they approached the Dunbar number.

Theoretically then, Dunbar acts as kind of speed limit in the building and maintaining

real relationships.

As you read the information above regarding Dunbars number, you might have paused

and thought that such was pure folly. After all, you have hundreds, if not thousands of

friends on social networking sites like Facebook. Yet, Dunbars number even applies to

the virtual world.

An article in the March 2, 2012 edition of Wired magazine tested the Dunbars

applicability to todays social networking. The author, Rick Law, tested in the theory in

his article Dunbars Number Kicked My Ass in Facebook Friends Experiment. Law

believed that while he had 2,000 friends in Facebookand admittedly didnt interact

with them personally, they were still a part of a valid relationship. To prove it, Law

decided to write them a personal note. Upon working his way through approximately

half of his Facebook list, the total lack of responses proved that Dunbars hypothesis

applied even in the Connected Age. Law came to the conclusion that even if you set

aside a chunk of your life specifically to broaden your social capital, you can only

maintain so many friendships. And so many is fewer than 200.


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LinkedIn itself offers contradictions in networking. On the one hand, the site urges users

to link only to people you know yet on the other hand, scores users based on howmany contacts they have (up to 500), while automatically searching your email for

contacts to link to. (This is a contradiction because does anyone actually know every

person from which theyve received an email)?

V. Social Networking Theory - Strong Ties and Weak TiesEven though the development of the theory behind Dunbars Number is

anthropologically significant, there is a contention that it doesnt apply to social

networking. Morten Hansens 2009 book, Collaboration, stakes a claim that social

networks real value is itsbuilding of weak ties, or our connection to people we are

scarcely acquainted with. According to Hansen, strong ties tend to be worlds we alreadyknow, or our real-life friends. In contrast, the relationships fostered by social

networking, weak ties, representpeople we dont interface very often. These are

people that one might talk to once a month as opposed to once a week for strong ties.

Thus, according to Hansen, what social networking sites gives us is a connection to

people we ordinarily would have no connection with at all. Hansens study goes on to

detail the benefits of weak ties as he makes his case for their importance.

But while Hansens study seemingly refutes the relationship limitation established by the

Dunbar Number, the contra could be argued. In fact, the weak ties theory does not begin

to contradict Dunbars definition of relationshipsas stable social relationships where I

know who each person is and how each person relates to every other person. Thus

while argument that social networking allows one to foster weak ties might be true, it is

inapplicable to Dunbar because the principles are not referring to the same thing.

The theory of the value of weak ties is not a new one. Dr. Mark Granovetter of Harvard

presented his dissertation on the subject of weak ties in 1970. In that study, weak ties

were found to be an important resource in finding a job. In Granovetters study, when

individuals who found a job through personal contacts were asked whether a friend had

told them about their new job, the most frequent answer was not a friend, an

acquaintance. Thus, it was weak tie that led them to employment, not a strong tie.

There is no arguing that any relationship is better than no relationship at all. Certainly,

Professor Sarah Jacks (Lancaster University, UK) has specifically addressed the value of

relationships, be they weak or strong, in her 2005 study: The Role, Use and Activation

of Strong and Weak Network Ties: A Quantitative Analysis. According to Jacks, the

effectiveness of a business network depends on strong and weak ties, both of which have


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a significant impact. However, Jacks paper concluded that it is strong ties that act as

the primary means of gaining knowledge and resources, not to mention are used to linkinto a wider social context, in other words, a friend of a friend. The fact is that the

real effectiveness of a network is dependent on strong ties, some of which can be dormant

for some time and later reactivated. So Jacks took Granovetters employment

conclusion to the next step: an acquaintance, or weak tie, might have helped one find a

job, but a strong tie led directly to the weak tie in the first place.

Professor Jacks also points out that networking is a time consuming, dynamic process of

identifying common interest, gaining knowledge and experience of other individuals and

building trust.1

VI. Its Always Been a Matter of Trust

There is an old saying that trust takes years to build, seconds to destroy, and forever to

repair. Every successful relationship, whether personal or business, depends on trust.

In business, we hedge our trusting relations by signing contracts. However, the law is but

a necessary backstop, placed there to take care of any wrongdoing. But do you really

want to go to court on every contract broken or every promise unfulfilled? Of course not!

Throughout the day, we depend on otherson their intentions, their efforts, and their

goodwill. We trust that the airplane mechanics really performed the required

maintenance. We depend upon that the farmer who we trust didnt lace his milk with

arsenic. We trust that the butchers scale isnt rigged. We live within a web of trust and

for society to exist, such must remain intact.

What if there is no trust? Without trust, our world devolves into chaos. For example,

while there are notable exceptions, most drivers obey the traffic laws. (The ones that

dont are usually caught, either by authorities again the law as a backstopor by the

law of averages when they have an accident). So suppose in our commute to work

tomorrow, we note that more drivers are disregarding the traffic laws. They are running

red lights, quickly changing lanes, driving down shoulders, and disregarding speed limits.

Ultimately, if enough people join these scofflaws, traffic would reach a point where

1Notes on Sarah Jacks Strong and Weak Ties, DamienLanfrey.net.

http://damienlanfrey.net/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:notes-on-sarah-jacks-

qstrong-and-weak-tiesq&catid=14:network-theory-and-analysis&Itemid=26

This source was corroborated by reading other synopsis of the study. See The Impact of Social Media on

Entrepreneurial Networks, Debashish Mandal,

http://www.academia.edu/506262/THE_IMPACT_OF_SOCIALMEDIA_ON_ENTREPRENEURIAL_NETWORKS
http://damienlanfrey.net/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:notes-on-sarah-jacks-qstrong-and-weak-tiesq&catid=14:network-theory-and-analysis&Itemid=26http://damienlanfrey.net/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:notes-on-sarah-jacks-qstrong-and-weak-tiesq&catid=14:network-theory-and-analysis&Itemid=26http://damienlanfrey.net/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:notes-on-sarah-jacks-qstrong-and-weak-tiesq&catid=14:network-theory-and-analysis&Itemid=26http://www.academia.edu/506262/THE_IMPACT_OF_SOCIALMEDIA_ON_ENTREPRENEURIAL_NETWORKShttp://www.academia.edu/506262/THE_IMPACT_OF_SOCIALMEDIA_ON_ENTREPRENEURIAL_NETWORKShttp://www.academia.edu/506262/THE_IMPACT_OF_SOCIALMEDIA_ON_ENTREPRENEURIAL_NETWORKShttp://damienlanfrey.net/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:notes-on-sarah-jacks-qstrong-and-weak-tiesq&catid=14:network-theory-and-analysis&Itemid=26http://damienlanfrey.net/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=30:notes-on-sarah-jacks-qstrong-and-weak-tiesq&catid=14:network-theory-and-analysis&Itemid=26


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everyone, regardless of their good intentions, would be compelled to cheat in order to

get safely arrive anywhere. Soon there would be traffic anarchy and it would be a worldofevery driver for himself. If you dont believe this, try driving in a third world

country where there are seemingly no traffic laws. Furthermore, once we threw away our

traffic laws, how long would it would take to reestablish them? How could you ever

start the reinstatement process if there was no trust?

Similarly, in business networking, trust is the coin of the realm. We have to believe that

our contacts are not simply in it for themselves. If you cant trust that the person that you

are networking with, then theres no reason to believe anything that they tell you.

Without trust, there is no relationship.

Trust is violated in networking sites like LinkedIn when a person you connect

automatically considers you a prospect through their mass marketing activity. Suchpeople simply compile all of their contacts up into one homogenous wad and start selling.

For these folks, LinkedIn just becomes another way of drawing a crowd. If these people

really wanted to sell me something, couldnt they at least explore if there is a need or

desire?

Therefore, in order to conform to volumes of sociological and psychological study,

combined with sheer mathematical modeling, the generation of genuine and effective social

business networks presents us with a conundrum:

1. To have a successful business, one needs to reach a wide-ranging prospective market. Toachieve this, you need to be able to meet and relate to as many people as possible.Separation theory, in that we can connect to practically anyone, anywhere through a

chain of helpful intermediaries, seems to work in our favor in this effort (and there are

scores of people on LinkedIn and other sites who are counting on this to be true).

2. However, while separation theory links us, a careful reading of the Milgrams studyshows that very high failure rate for making any connection using virtual strangers within

the six degrees of separation equates to an inefficient method to gain introduction to

possible prospects, connected individuals, or knowledge experts. Separation theory

dependence fails to expand the communication limitations of our own personal

relationships (not to mention problems of distance and space).

3. A related complication of using separation theory-based social networking for business isthe fact that those in the chain have to be helpful. Generally, we can only depend on

people we truly know to lend assistance, be it connections or knowledge. Onlypersonal kinship can overcome the inclination to follow the tenets of expectancy theory,

which defines an inherently human me-first attitude. To be succinct, your network has

to ignore their own WIIFM.


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4. We also have to acknowledge that there is a limitation to the number of people one canactually know and with which you can achieve a genuine relationship as per theDunbar Number. Thus we wont be able to depend on very many people for any kind of

assistance. The Dunbar Number therefore defeats the promise of separation theory. It

appears that we have to make do with people we really know, or those who know the

people we know.

5. Truly effective social network communication and education seems to depend on the lawof the few, that is, that there are certain individuals in the world who are connectors or

mavens. If these arent people we can know or reach, then well never hit the funnel

that will help our mission to meet more people or gain more information.

6. Those that are most effective in social networking are those that freely give of themselvesin their role as connectors or mavens. These people break the mandates of expectancy

theory. (Though one could argue that they are doing whats best for them because of the

enjoyment they receive by helping others). Even those we are tied loosely to areseemingly undependable, while our friends of friends might be of more networking

value.

7. There must be a condition of trust among the participants in order for a network tobeneficial for its adherents.

How can we overcome this quandary? How can you find locate the most effective people

if your span of effective networking reach is somewhat limited? How can we depend on

others to do the best thing for us?

VI. The Law of Thin NumbersLogically then, what is needed to achieve effective and beneficial virtual social/business

relationships is to not only obtain a large and dependable platform to reach out to others,

but also the ability to obtain the confidence of a smaller group ofpeople of

significance, that is, someone who has the ability to connect us with the people or

knowledge that we seek. Our conclusion therefore is

Effective business networking requires that we begin big, that is, to have a large

numbers of contacts who will, in turn, assist us to get small, which is in turn, to

pinpoint individuals of consequence, who are the people who are of value to us

(whether as connectors/funnels, mavens, or prospects).

True business networking is a combination of weak and strong ties, limited by

Dunbars Number, flavored by Expectancy Theory, buoyed by Separation Theory,

and based upon trust. Borrowing a term from mathematics, we might refer to this

as the law of thin numbers.


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(Note: The term thin numbers is also derived from the phrase Strength in Numbers).

So, how can one maximize the Law of Thin Numbers in business virtual networking? To

do this, we need to build a platform that has certain attributes that truly address the science and

psychology inherent in human nature and networking. We would need to create

a. a sizeable, fraternal-like virtual organization where members are inclined to helpone another because of the intrinsic relationship built into the organization (much

like a fraternal order);

b. a virtual chamber of commerce that includes business people who desire tofurther their own community by helping each other

c. a group that has required sponsorship for a prospective memberto join;d. an authentic pledge made by group members to aid, help, and assist others in

the group as long as it is possible and not contrary to ones own interests

e. an agreement by group members to offer their own personal and companysexpertise and products to other group members, to some degree without

expectation of compensation, while foregoing an opportunity to openly market

such to them (but leaving such a possibility open if done in an acceptable

manner).

VII. The effectiveness of oathsA very particular difference in this business networking group is the ThinNumbers Code

as produced herein. Members are expected to adhere to the tenets of this pledge and by

doing so, help create an atmosphere where associations built here are different than those

formed on other social networking sites. Here we create genuine relationships, even

between virtual strangers. Here are strong ties that might be active or can lie dormant

until needed later. The way to do this is that the individuals are tied to the platform, not

to just each other.

Now one might speculate that an oath is an archaic anachronism and that has little or no

effect on individual behavior in the modern world. Believe it or not, there have been

studies done that illustrate that agreeing and pledging an oath in fact alters human

behavior.

Recently, a study was done by Duke professor Dan Ariely (and detailed in his book,

Predictably Irrational) that tests the effectiveness of ethical imperatives, or moral pledges

and guidelines. In the experiment, Dr. Ariely established three groups of MIT students.

Each group was administered a math test and were paid for correct answers. The first

group, as the control group, simply took the test and handed it in. Then they were


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compensated for all correct answers. The second group who were administered the test

graded their own paper and were told to keep the answer sheet. This group simplyreported to the proctor the number of correct answers they achieved. Again, they were

paid for the result. The third group was given the test in exactly the same manner as the

second group with one exception: they had to sign a statement before taking the test

which read: I understand that this study falls under the MIT honor system.

The results of this experiment were eye-opening. The first group achieved an average of

three problems correct. The second group, who had the opportunity to cheat because no

one actually saw their test results, scored an average of 5.5 answers correct. In other

words, they did indeed cheat (because it would be highly unlikely that the second group,

as a whole, was simply smarter than the first random group). The third group, who had

the same opportunity to be untruthful as the second group but who were bound by the

honor code statement, reported to the proctor that they too had achieved three correctanswersthe exact same as the control group. What was even more surprising is that

there is no honor code at MIT! Thus the conclusion that Ariely came to was

. . . we learned that people cheat when they have a chance to do so, but they

dont cheat as much as they could. Moreover, once they begin thinking about

honestywhether by recalling the Ten Commandments or signing a simple

statementthey stop cheating completely. In other words, when we are removed

from the benchmarks of ethical thought, we tend to stray into dishonesty. But if

we are reminded of morality at the moment that we are tempted, then we are

much more likely to be honest.

The ThinNumbers Code

There is a difference between ThinNumbers and all other groups and organizations and it starts

with an oath, a promise, a pledge, a code. All ThinNumbers associates will sign and be governed

by the Code.

The ThinNumbers Code:

As an associate of ThinNumbers, I do solemnly pledge upon my honor,that I shall,

act professionally and respectfully toward all other associates; use my greatest and best efforts to assist other associates through my own personal

knowledge and connections; and

respond to all requests in a manner that is respectful, courteous and contemporaneouseven if I am unable to fulfill the request.

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It is the Code, and what it stands for, that separates ThinNumbers from every business networking site.

Yet it is only as good as the honesty and good-faith upon which it is practiced.

The Code is intentionally written in nonspecific terms because to be detailed would make the Code too

unwieldy to live-up-to and administer. However, there are certain ideals that underlie the words:

A ThinNumbers associate will:

treat others in accordance with The Golden Rule, treating others as they would like to betreated;

acknowledge that the highest aspiration of ThinNumbers is for all to enjoy success and not toused as a tool for ones own selfish gain alone;

openly connect to other business people around the world through this group, and upon doing so,consider them important associates; and

take seriously the formal act of nominating and sponsoring like-minded individuals forassociation;

be understanding when one associate has to decline to offer assistance.*

Similarly, a ThinNumbers associate will NOT:

overtly marketing a product or services to other associates as this diminishes the relationship andundermines the trust which is inherent in the organization; and,

not take undue advantage of any assistance offered, and if such is requested or occurs, properremuneration shall be offered.

*Note: this might occur when the request would actually adversely affect the provider. Example: Im

bidding on work and you ask me to help you get introduced to the decision-maker for that same job.


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Ideas for ThinNumbers:

The following are some of the ideas for ThinNumbers as the group grows and matures.

Dovetailing LinkedIn and Facebook where the profiles created there are incorporated (butexpanded). I note that LI allows others to attest to another members expertise.

Shouldnt you also be able to claim your own expertise?

individuals are sorted into communities where their expertise lies. These communitieswill be more specialized and limited than LinkedIn Groups, with geographic, industry,

or specialization (or all of the above).

a directory of associates that can be cross-referenced by geography, expertise,connections, knowledge

a marketplace a summarization of products/services that can be purchased. The ideawould be that every business web site there would be somewhat homogenousdeficient

on the hype but more specific detail. (How many times have you gone to a website and

asked what does this company actually do? The standardized website will give a

brief description of each company. A real description and not just fluff).

opinions of products and services that you can believe in because they wont be paid for a conduit of secure informationcertified electronic mail

ThinNumbers is a group established in both LinkedIn and Facebook. If you agree with

what you read here, I invite you to join by sending me an email at the address below.

Questions or comments can be directed to me as well and are welcome.

Michael A. LeBrun

ThinNumbers.com678-223-3040

[email protected]

Documents

Thin Numbers.docx