Maybe Mama was right. Maybe I shouldn't have sighed and shot her that look when she shook me by the figurative scruff of my neck and admonished, "Be generous. Always give more than you get." Generosity, claims Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone, is the single-word key to success in business.

This practical, easy-to-read guide to networking offers a fresh approach to the traditional work-the-room frenzy wielded by the eye-darting networking jerk-the slick schmoozer. The end-of-the-event-business-card-counter doesn't understand that bona fide networking is about making connections-building friendships. It's about making other people winners. Ferrazzi, who wrote the book with support from Fortune Small Business editor Tahl Raz, advises, "The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity."

Ferrazzi, a partner in Deloitte Consulting, guides us through 31 short chapters of practices that can be used to develop emotional connections leading to trust and eventual business. We are coached, "Your network is your net worth." From warming up cold calls, to managing gatekeepers, to making small talk, to "deep bumping" (making connections that ensure a next meeting), we learn that networking is about living

a connected life-about generosity.

Our success in the 21st-century world paradigm of globalization depends on our ability to create alliances and re-learn the fundamental, powerful truth of what it means to be human-of how to create a community. Ferrazzi and my suddenly wise mama counsel us that in order to make a difference in the world and in our personal success, we must first consider other people. Generosity. Try it on. It fits.

-Judith Kolva, Ph.D., associate professor of Interdisciplinary Studies at International College