I was recently reminded of the unreasonable impact of finding favour with the right person in the right place: the right source of information, the right government official, the right technician, the right customer, or the right sponsor for your project. This is difficult when you don’t know the right person – or don’t even know who the right person is.
The only way to find this favour that I know of is to push doors. Ask your friends, colleagues and champions for ideas and – if possible – for warm introductions. In the absence of an introduction, discover ways to get in the orbit of the right people. If your project is immediately and clearly of service to them or in service of mutual goals, you might cold call. Show evidence of your work and impact. Ask for help.
The point is: push. every. door. It can be a hard, awkward grind, and nine out of ten doors go nowhere (for now), but the tenth might open possibilities that you could never have planned for… and the ninety-ninth might turn out to open new possibilities for the first, fifteenth or fiftieth.
Ask, seek, knock.