To succeed in business and life, you have to hustle. Since it’s often best to look outside your own industry for ideas (don’t get stuck in a silo), and figure out how they apply to your specific situation — I thought I’d share an example I came across the other day while reading and commenting on “Do Comments Matter?“…

This is the story of how John Exley hustled to get “in” with Mark Suster (a very well known Venture Capitalist), which led to an internship and in person meeting.

Here is the explanation John left on the Do Comments Matter? post:

On February 3rd, 2011, Mark ended a blog post with this ‘appendix’:

“**I have enjoyed every episode that I’ve done and keep wanting to write up the notes from some of the previous shows but it’s time consuming. Any takers in a trade for helping do some write-ups against whatever you want? Advice, coaching, intros? It’s such a shame that I haven’t written up such great interviews as Seth Sternberg, Howard Morgan, Tom McInerney, Yves Sisteron, Mike Yavonditte and many more.”

At the time, I was chasing an internship with Hashable. Mike Yavonditte was the CEO. So, I JUMPED at the opportunity to summarize Suster’s interview with Mike and have Suster publish it on his blog. I worked hard on it, Mark published it (read it here), and then I ultimately got the internship! And later that fall, only a week after returning to Clarkson U for my senior year, I ended up at TechCrunch Disrupt helping to launch YouNow.

I hit up Mark on Twitter about how I was in SF. He agreed to meet in person, remembering me from my comments!

This is an example from the tech startup world, so it likely doesn’t directly apply to your situation. Mark Suster, or any venture capitalist, probably aren’t the best people to help your real estate career. But, that said, there are people in your local community that could likely propel your career forward in some way.

Small acts, can mean big gains for your career. Are you hustling to build those relationships? How?