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"In his bestselling book The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell cites a classic 1974 study by sociologist Mark Granovetter that surveyed how a group of men in Newton, Massachusetts, found their current job. The study appropriately titled 'Getting a Job,' has become a seminal work in its field, and its findings have been confirmed over and over again.

Granovetter discovered that 56% of those surveyed found their current job through a personal connection. Only 19% used what we consider traditional job-searching routes, like newspaper job listings and executive recruiters. Roughly 10 percent applied directly to an employer and obtained the job.

My point? Personal contacts are the key to opening doors - not such a revolutionary idea. What is surprising however, is that of those personal connections that reaped dividends for those in the study, only 17% saw their personal contact often - as much as they would if they were good friends - and 55% saw their contact only occasionally. And get this, 28% barely met with their contact at all.

In other words, it's not necessarily strong contacts, like family and close friends, that prove the most powerful; to the contrary, often the most important people in our network are those who are acquaintances."

-Keith Ferrazzi