> The first principle for would-be networkers is to abandon all shame. Be flagrant in your pursuit of the powerful and the soon-to-be-powerful, and when you have their attention, praise them to the skies.

I'm reading "How to win friends and influence people" right now. The author would disagree. He would recommend compliments, not flattery. Compliments are sincere, flattery is transparent brown-nosing that makes you lose credibility. I'm paraphrasing the book not giving my opinion: I have no idea what I'm doing.

That said this is very relevant to me because I've recently quit working as a full time employee for 10 years and want to have a go at consulting for companies. I jumped in head first and it has not gone as smoothly as I would like. My biggest issue so far is I don't know where to go to network with the people that I should be talking to. I can go to free networking events with founders of companies, but all of them seem to be at the pre-funding stage and can only pay me in equity. I'm looking for people that can pay in cash. Any advice would be appreciated.