Do you really know who you are? If someone asked you to describe yourself in less than 30 seconds what would you tell them? Right now, think about what you would say.

What did you come up with? If you said something that someone else had told you about yourself then you should take the deep dive your personality. Figure out what it is about you that helped them have that impression about you. There is a really easy way. Take a personality test! Personality test are a great way to gain better insight into who you are. Typically, these test help you put words to the things you do and make it easier to communicate the type of person you are. They especially help with developing online profiles, cover letters and when going to networking events.

Professional and business networking can be really exciting. You're getting out there and letting people know you exist and you're marketing your business. In your mind your goal is to come across valuable to every person you meet. But what you don't realize that you may be telling people too much information.

Day in and day out you sit in a cube or behind a desk. You are known only by the people that you work with. Outside those concrete walls are hundreds of millions of people that have NO IDEA you exist. What you don't know today is that tomorrow you are going to be fired and thrown out with a cardboard box filled with junk you collected to make yourself more comfortable at work. Once the shock and fear have settled in you will realize you're not sure what to do. You end up falling in to the masses of people that have accepted their fate. It is not the fate of lossing your job. It is the fate of being part of the masses and never standing out.

Reputation is one of the most important attributes of professional networking. It takes much longer to build a good reputation than it does to create a bad one or destroy your own. You must remember that it's not only your reputation your are building (or destroying), it is also your network's reputation. Each of us has a small circle we turn to. How you conduct yourself reflects on your circle too. This holds true in just about all interpersonal interactions from attending a networking event to sending an email. If you are a jerk at a networking event or don't take the time to create a relevant subject line in an email, you could potentially be harming yourself. Your actions reflect on your network, good or bad, so remember what's at stake.

Without courage no one would take risks. Remember that your courage to take risks has a rippling effect that extends through your network and beyond. Courage is rewarding even when you experience failure. Have the courage to learn from your failures and chose to take those lessons with you so that the next risk you take is more successful than the last. There will be even more opportunities ahead of you that will test your courage so never give up.