Networking and "The Power of Who"

In his book, "The Power of Who: You Already Know Everyone You Need to Know," author and headhunter Bob Beaudine writes, "Most people never get what they want for three simple reasons."

He goes on to explain the three:

1. They don't ask. No one can help if they don't know what you want. 
2. When they do ask, they ask the wrong people. For some reason, people are uncomfortable asking their "Who" for help. As a result, they'll ask most anyone except their friends, who are the only ones with a motive to help. 
3. When they do ask for help, they ask you vaguely. Even if I'm motivated to help a friend, I can't do it when I don't know what he or she wants.

I find this to be the case for many job seekers. For example, when my clients are networking, they often don't talk to the people who are best suited to help them succeed.

I had a client who worked in the transportation industry and was laid off. After weeks of telling him to make sure that he was talking to his network about his career goal and asking for specific help, he was getting stuck. So I reached out to my network. Within a day, I had an opening at a local company for him to follow up on. When I gave him the information, he said, "Oh. A guy I used to work with works there now." Well then, dude, why didn't you already know about this opening?

Because he didn't ask.