Brokerage
the money isn't in knowing people. it's in being the bridge between people who don't know each other.
Grounded in the research on Ronald Burt, 'Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition' (1992); brokerage and closure theory
the setup
Brokerage is the value you create just by standing between two groups that aren't connected. You know people in the gym scene and people in tech. They've never met. You introduce them, broker the deal, surface the contact — and you skim value off a gap you didn't even build. It's not about how many people you know. It's about whether you're the only road between them.
the science
Sociologist Ronald Burt formalized this in 'Structural Holes' (1992). A structural hole is a gap between two clusters with no tie across it; whoever bridges it is the broker. Burt's data on managers found the ones spanning holes got better reviews, faster promotions, bigger bonuses. This is real network science, not a guru's coinage — replicated across firms, industries, and decades.