Your Network Is an Asset. Until It Isn’t.
We’re told that your network is your net worth. Every connection is an asset. Build enough of them and they’ll carry you.
Peter Mandelson was arguably the best-connected British political figure of his generation. Former cabinet minister, former EU trade commissioner, a man who seemed to know everyone worth knowing. In December 2024, that’s precisely why he was chosen as Britain’s ambassador to Washington.
Nine months later, he was gone.
In September 2025, documents released by a US congressional committee, followed by emails reported in the press, showed that his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein had been closer, and had lasted longer, than was understood when he was appointed. In one letter he’d called Epstein “my best pal”. Keir Starmer dismissed him, describing the emails as reprehensible.
But here’s the part that interests me. It didn’t stop with him.
In February 2026, Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, who had championed the appointment, resigned, saying the decision had been wrong. In April, it was reported that Mandelson had failed security vetting before being appointed, and the Foreign Office’s most senior civil servant was dismissed.
One connection. And it travelled right through the system.
We talk about networks as if connections only carry good things: introductions, opportunities, influence. They don’t. A connection is a pipe. It carries whatever is in it, in both directions.
That’s the paradox of any interconnected system, whether it’s a government, a company or a media brand. The very thing that makes it powerful, everything linked to everything else, is what makes a single failure contagious.
In The Media Ecosystem Blueprint the author argues that connected assets compound. He still believes that. What he has come to appreciate is that connected liabilities compound too, and usually faster.
So should we judge people by how many connections they have, or by how carefully they choose them?
The Media Ecosystem Blueprint by Kizzi Nkwocha: https://a.co/d/08BnZLkj
#Networking, #Reputation, #UKPolitics, #Leadership, #PersonalBrand, #RiskManagement, #DueDiligence, #BusinessStrategy, #MediaEcosystem, #Entrepreneurship, #KizziNkwocha, #TheMediaEcosystemBlueprint
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