The Amazing Ripple Effects of NetWeaving and Pay it Forward

About 6 years ago, an old client of mine asked me to have lunch with him.  He gave me a copy of a music CD presented to him by the recording artist – Curtis Reed.  My client had met Curtis while Curtis was performing a eulogy at the funeral for a mutual friend of theirs.  I was introduced to Curtis and we’ve since become best of friends.

I wanted to help Curtis and so I decided to put my NetWeaving skills into action.  One of those connections I made – through another friend – was to a very politically well-connected individual – Roger Wise – who has opened a number of doors for Curtis all the way down to the Capitol and the Lt. Governor’s office.

But as a result of one important connection I made for Curtis, it has triggered a series of ‘ripple effects’ going forward, that will have one of the greatest long-term impacts of any NetWeaving I have ever done.

It involves a friend in Newnan, GA, Mark Whitlock.  Mark has had a major impact on economic development for that area of Georgia as well as within the entire state.

When I told Mark about Curtis Reed and a song he had written and recorded called, “Take Me Back to Georgia”, Mark said we should come down to Newnan and tour their new performance center where Curtis might possibly perform sometime in the future.

Another friend, who is an intellectual property attorney, Rick Walker, and a music lover and violinist himself, and who had agreed to do some pro bono copyright work for Curtis, asked if he might join us there to visit the Newnan performance center.

Not only were all 3 of us – Curtis, Rick and myself, blown away by the acoustics in the center, but after the visit, Rick had another connection he had in mind to make for Mark Whitlock.

Turns out that Rick had identified a weakness that Georgia had. Whereas almost all of the surrounding southern states already had a state Automotive Manufacturer’s Association, Georgia had none. So Rick founded and now runs the Georgia Automotive Manufacturers Association or GAMA.

As a way of ‘paying it forward’ for Mark’s invitation and tour of the Newnan performance center, at a GAMA Board meeting to which Rick had invited Mark to attend, he introduced Mark to Stefanie Ziska, CEO of the German-American Chamber of Commerce of the Southern U.S., who just happened to be in charge of developing German-US apprenticeship programs in the automotive and other industries.

Guess what is Mark Whitlock’s major career achievement? He started the Central Educational Center in Newnan, Georgia.  That program has since been replicated over 40 times in Georgia and now in other states. These College and Career Academies link high school students with technical colleges in Georgia to help high school students who already know they want hands-on skills, and who don’t want to go on to attend a regular 4-year college – at least not right out of high school – and allow them to be dually enrolled – high school and a technical college or academy.

These students graduate simultaneously from their high school and from a regional technical college with credentials known and desired by employers who need their chosen technical skills.

So the result of this connection was the very first German – Ameri-can Apprenticeship program involving US high school students, who begin at age 15, and are apprenticed with German, Japanese, Canadian, American and other manufacturers – being paid – and with a guaranteed job upon graduation.

Although I had no intention of somehow benefiting from the connec-tions I kept making, as a result of my research contributions, as well as my vocal participation in an early version of Curtis’s new song, “Georgia’s Got It All”, he made me a co-writer, with himself and his wife, Jane Biles.  And with mine and other’s NetWeaving help, we plan to make this song the economic development theme song for all of the Georgia.

So, as a result of these NetWeaving-Pay It Forward ripples, not only do I have one of the best and strongest new relationships of my life, but I can now add, ‘song-writer’ to my repertoire of NetWeaving skill sets.

 NetWeaving and Pay it Forward not only represent a great way to live your life, but whether you own a business or are just beginning to build a career, they both will have an amazing positive impact.  Try it.  You’ll like it.