Wojciech (Wojtek) Kołodziejczak’s parents were rich once. They ran a successful business in the textile industry in Poland but when the economy transitioned to capitalism in the early 90s, the business crashed and the family lost everything. By the age of 6, Wojciech was living with his parents in a wooden cabin on the outskirts of Łódź, a kilometre’s walk to the nearest fresh water pump.
That is where his story begins.
Today, he is a digital nomad, travelling Europe with his tech-genius wife, Justyna, promoting and providing their services online as Life Networker, teaching the value of human relationships in business.
Life Networker Business Development
What is Life Networking?
It’s no one single thing. Like his collection of 27 hats (one for each EU member State?), his portfolio of services is wide.
Primarily, Wojciech helps his clients get more customers via business development and social media through his company, Life Networker. He specialises in working with lawyers, accountants and financial advisors: he himself was once a trainee solicitor.
He also runs workshops on Face-to-Face networking, teaching people the essential soft skills they need to succeed in the hard world of commerce.
Life Networker Philosophy: Relationships are Forever
But Life Networker is also a philosophy, perhaps best explained with a story. Wojciech’s parents, living in that cabin the woods, realised that he could have a better life with his grandparents. And so it is today that the wisdom of his grandfather still resonates, in his world view and his business strategies.
Wojciech remembers, as a child, adjusting to the change from a life of relative luxury as his parents’ business failed and they slid into poverty.
He quotes his grandfather at the time: “Money comes and goes, but the most important things in life are relationships, the people around you”. He added “Make sure you’re not the smartest person in the room, so you can grow constantly.”
Perhaps those words of wisdom were wasted on him at the time, at such a young age, but they were reinforced many years later, as he was studying law at the University of Chester. He was looking for some legal work experience while working in a low-paid job at a hangar recycling facility. He sent out hundreds of letters to law firms but got no response. His workmates at the facility suggested that as he was Polish he might never get a job in UK law. But then he attended a jobs fair in nearby Manchester and got chatting informally to some lawyers. One of them, named Mike, was interested to hear his story: what had led Wojciech to this point. Upon hearing it, Mike immediately offered him some work experience.
Wojciech was delighted, but cautious: he advised him that he had already received a rejection letter from his firm. But Mike told him to forget about that and start on Monday. It turned out that Mike was a senior partner, so Wojciech got the best work experience he could dream of; shadowing a senior solicitor to meetings and seeing law from a very different perspective.
Then his grandfather’s words came back to him. A hundred letters (or emails) can never match the impact of personal human interaction. And following around a successful senior solicitor for two weeks allowed him to see the value of not being the smartest guy in the room.
Life Networker was born.
Exposure in the Sauna
Wojciech went on to work as a trainee solicitor and began networking everywhere he went. At first he brought Polish clients to the firm but then gradually an increasing number of older, British clients turned up, mentioning his name. His boss was puzzled: where was he meeting all these people? Wojciech explained – he had been visiting a local sauna for a few weeks before work and had built friendly relationships with the other users. Word had spread and here were the results!
Helping Others
Wojciech’s decision to leave the legal profession and develop Life Networker should come as no big surprise. He quotes his original motivation for coming to the UK to study law as a desire to help his family in Poland to get back on its feet and to help the large Polish diaspora in the UK with the British legal system.
A quick glance at his LinkedIn profile today shows that he is “Helping Lawyers & Accountants Develop Personal Brand & Get More Ideal Clients via Social Media.”
As always, he is outward-looking, focussing on the needs of others, seeing from their point of view. A Life Networker.
Wojciech Kołodziejczak was interviewed by Bill Mair, of PrecisionPresentation.com
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