Millionaires At Fashion Shows – Cool Events To Avoid Burnout And Entrepreneur Tunnel Vision

Today’s article comes live to you from Vancouver, Canada’s fashion week for 2015. I’m actually here because my friend convinced me to go – a year ago, I won’t lie, you wouldn’t be able to drag me kicking and screaming to a place like this. I would have been thinking with one thing and one thing only: entrepreneurial tunnel vision.

Why I Force Myself To Go To Millionaire Fashion Shows

Last year, I would never go to a fashion show or anything of the sort. It’s simply unrelated to what I’m generally interested in during my daily business hustle. However, when you’re grinding it out in the business world for 13+ hours a day for years on end, when you’re only talking with people doing the same entrepreneur’s single-minded focus, when you’re reading the same books every week as all of the people you network with on the same exact topic… you tend to develop a little bit of tunnel vision.

Now having tunnel vision can be fine for a while. It can take quite a few years of just focusing on that “one thing” in order to build your empire onto a solid foundation, but the fact is you don’t want a pendulum effect to kick in and end up with entrepreneurial burnout.

After some serious hustling in the business world, you’ll find yourself needing to be surrounded by people in other fields. It’s always important to keep an open mind when approaching new industries. So the next step you’ll want to take is to find some people doing things unrelated to what you’re doing… and let me tell you, this fashion show is about as unrelated as you’re going to get to what I’m doing in business.

So following the runway show, I’m going to try my best to talk to people in the know. I want to introduce myself to people in an unrelated industry offering value. For me, doing this offers only upside. I’m certain there’s a variety of important concepts I can learn from them and therefore I need to put myself in a position to have a conversation with the powerful people in this line of work, even if it’s a bit uncomfortable at first.

Why Do Millionaires Even Throw Fashion Shows?

Networking my way into a new society is a talent within itself and I value it. I’ve said in previous videos that this is an important skill to have and I stand by it. However, I’ll occasionally get a comment from a viewer that says something like this: “I’ve been to networking events and I can’t seem to find a lot of successful people there.”

Look, I understand where you’re coming from but the fact is a networking event isn’t necessarily always one of those conferences with cocktail parties and luncheons with “networking event” in the title. A fashion show is also a form of a networking event.

Think about it – a “fashion show”, almost by definition, is populated by wealthy, successful, and ambitious people congregating in a common space. I can tell you from a personal experience that you can find them at an event like this.

I just talked to the organizer for this particular show and asked him if throwing fashion events was the main business he runs. He replied straightforwardly, “No, no – I have plenty of other businesses!”

It’s much more likely that this is a form of high-level networking for him. He’s not going to come right out to his fellow event organizers and say, “Well I own a construction business and I do this to meet other go-getters” or something flippant like that. He’s going to organize a fantastic fashion show, get all the high rollers of Vancouver into one space and go to work on building an excellent business network.

Inside The Mind Of A VIP Event Organizer

The point here is that if you get into these events (especially the VIP area if you’ve got the gift of gab), there’s a lot of successful people walking around all the time. You’ll meet people who are running these fashion labels, heading well-known organizations and so on.

Now often these organizations are bit more of a vanity project combined with a charity focus in order to allow them to perform more subtle (but highly valuable) networking. Keep this in mind as you begin to do your research on the next event to attend, but they are indeed designed for wealthy and successful people to get in the same room and build connections.

Additionally, the successful people you’ll meet at these events actually enjoy the work they’re doing. Think of the “passion project” concept. I believe without a shadow of a doubt that the men and women I’ve been socializing with here at the fashion show genuinely enjoy the fashion world and deftly attach their charitable organization to this event to create a win-win.

The good news is that you can be the beneficiary of the networking advantages of this… if you actually show up.

Take The Pressure Off Of Yourself And Show Up

This also explains why people go to golf and yacht clubs, and things of this nature. There’s actually a few here in Vancouver I might shoot some videos from. The exclusivity of these locations allows a certain level of free-flowing, trustworthy networking that can take place while they actually take part in a pastime they enjoy. Social proof can be a huge advantage in these situations.

You’ll see that after you’ve been in business and tunnel visioning for years and years, you’ll really want some kind of distraction and to enjoy something completely unrelated.

Now the last point I’d like to make to you today – and it’s an important one – is you’re not necessarily going to “like” all of the networking events or shows you’re going to attend. Being stimulated and super energized is not the main goal here. You may not even find yourself looking at the actual fashion being worn while you’re watching stunning models walking down that runway.

But you should still go. Not only may you find yourself easing into the culture and actually having some fun, but you are putting yourself in a position to expand your business and connections, which are invaluable assets in the long run.