The best way to network is to stop networking altogether - at least in the traditional sense.
These are the lessons from Arianna Huffington, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post, who has been dubbed 'the world's best networker' on more than one occasion.
And, having rubbed shoulders with everyone from The Dalai Lama to Beyoncé, it's little wonder why.
"The best networkers are people who start by seeing what they can give to somebody," says Arianna, speaking at an event hosted by The School Of Life, on Wednesday evening.
"It's not because you want something back, but because you want to help - it's a state of offering."
Whether helping to find someone a boyfriend by introducing them to eligible friends or advising someone looking for a good school for their children - there are often many ways you can come to someone's aid, she says.
In that sense, Arianna says, the best networker was her mother.
"When we were living in Greece, a stranger admired the necklace my mother was wearing," she recalls. "So my mother took it off and gave it to her. When the astonished woman asked, 'What can I give you in return?' my mother said, 'It's not a trade, darling, it's an offering.'"
We need to do away with the 'glass half-full' mentality, she says: "Don't live life through a sense of lacking, but rather through a sense of abundance."
"After we accept that we have everything we need, networking becomes about making personal connections," she adds.
"People who are the best networkers have no sense of hierarchy - they will treat the check-out clerk in the same way as everyone else."
Arianna's advice forms part of her wider Third Metric initiative to redefine success beyond the traditional metrics of money and power.
The drive aims to upturn the male-dominated model of success, which equates success with burnout, sleep deprivation, and driving ourselves into the ground, on its head.
She is currently in the UK to promote the launch of her most recent book, Thrive: The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Life of Well-Being, Wisdom, and Wonder.