Networking, business relationships, and proximity to successful people can have a much greater impact on our careers and businesses than we sometimes acknowledge. This is particularly true in relationship-driven industries like film, media and entertainment, where the people who know your work, trust your execution and are willing to recommend you can influence which opportunities become available to you.
There is a popular Nigerian relationship theory called Okafor’s Law. In its original context, the idea is that once a certain level of connection and familiarity has been established between two people, reconnecting later can be easier than building the same connection with someone completely new. I am not here to discuss the relationship side of Okafor’s Law, but as I continue building in the film business, I have realized that there is an important business lesson hidden inside it.
In business, relationships have memory. When someone already knows your work, trusts your execution, understands how you operate, and has had a positive experience with you, you are rarely starting from zero the next time an opportunity arises. That relationship becomes a form of relationship capital, and for filmmakers, founders, content creators and entrepreneurs, learning how to build and maintain that capital can become a serious competitive advantage.
We often spend so much time chasing what is new. In film, we are thinking about the next investor, distributor, streaming platform, actor, brand partnership, or audience. Growth certainly requires new relationships, but sometimes we overlook the enormous value of the relationships we have already earned.
Your audience is one of the clearest examples. If someone watched your last film, enjoyed it, recommended it, and connected with your storytelling, they shouldn’t have to discover you from scratch when your next project arrives. Your YouTube subscribers, social media followers, email list, Substack community, cinema audiences and people who attend your screenings are not simply numbers. They are people who have already demonstrated an interest in your work. Every film should therefore help build the audience for the next one.
The same principle applies to film investors and business investors. Raising capital is difficult whether you are working in Nollywood, Hollywood, technology, or another industry. But there is a significant difference between approaching a stranger and returning to someone who has already watched you execute. They have seen how you communicate, how you handle pressure, whether you deliver, and how transparent you are when things do not go according to plan. Trust has already started to develop, and trust has economic value.
That is why relationships should not suddenly become active only when you need something. Keep investors informed. Share meaningful milestones. Let people know when the project receives distribution, enters a new market, wins an award, or reaches an important audience milestone. The same applies to distributors, exhibitors, streaming platforms, vendors, and business partners. If working with you was professional and relatively frictionless the first time, the next conversation does not have to begin with you explaining who you are.
There is another part of this that founders and creatives sometimes underestimate: the power of proximity. Being around successful people does not automatically make you successful, but proximity can influence what you know, what you believe is possible, which conversations you hear, and which opportunities become visible to you. That is why being intentional about where you spend your time, the rooms you enter, the friendships you cultivate, and the way you network matters.
If you regularly spend time around people who are building businesses, raising capital, creating successful projects, taking calculated risks and solving difficult problems, you are exposed to a different level of thinking. You hear how deals are structured. You learn what other founders are struggling with. You discover opportunities earlier. You meet people who may eventually introduce you to an investor, client, distributor, business partner, or collaborator.
Sometimes the most valuable outcome of networking is not what happens in the room that day. It is what that relationship produces several years later.
You can see this clearly among content creators. Put a group of serious creators together long enough, and as some begin figuring out audience growth, monetization, brand partnerships, production, and distribution, knowledge starts flowing through the group. Someone understands YouTube. Another person knows how to secure brand deals. Someone else has discovered a better production strategy. They learn from one another’s mistakes, exchange information, and make introductions. When a creator begins to succeed, the people closest to them now have access to knowledge and relationships they might otherwise have spent years trying to acquire.
The same pattern appears throughout entrepreneurship. Certain companies, universities, accelerators, studios, and professional communities repeatedly produce successful founders and executives. Part of that comes from training and experience, but part of it also comes from proximity. People spend years around talented operators, investors, decision-makers and future founders. When they eventually leave to build something of their own, they do not leave with experience alone. They leave with relationships.
A former colleague may become an investor. A former executive may become an adviser. Someone you once worked beside may eventually become a client. A person you met casually at an industry conference may introduce you to the person who changes the trajectory of your company.
Film is perhaps one of the clearest examples of why this matters. The production assistant on your set today may become a producer. The junior studio executive who cannot approve your project today may eventually run the division. The actor who accepted a small role in one of your early films may later become a major star. An assistant director may eventually build a successful production company. We simply do not know where people are going, which is why the way we build and maintain professional relationships matters.
This is also why strategic networking should be more intentional than collecting business cards, LinkedIn connections, or Instagram followers. Ask yourself whether you are deliberately placing yourself in environments where people are doing the kind of work you hope to do. Are your friendships and professional relationships stretching the way you think? Are you participating in communities where useful ideas, opportunities, and information are exchanged? Are you also providing enough value that other people genuinely want you in those rooms?
Your network cannot replace competence, hard work, or execution. Knowing powerful people cannot sustainably compensate for being unable to deliver. However, when strong execution is combined with strong relationships, the two can compound.
As I continue building businesses in film and entertainment, I increasingly understand that intellectual property, capital, and distribution are not the only assets we are accumulating. We are also accumulating reputation, trust, relationships, and access. When audiences return, investors continue taking your calls, talented people want to work with you again, and former collaborators mention your name in rooms you are not in, your business begins to benefit from something very powerful: you are no longer starting from zero.
So one of the questions we should regularly ask ourselves as entrepreneurs, filmmakers, and leaders is not only, “Who do I need to meet next?” We should also ask, “Who already knows my work, trusts my execution, or believes in what I am building, and am I maintaining those relationships?” Just as importantly, are we intentionally putting ourselves close enough to the people, ideas, and environments that can help us become better builders?
Your next opportunity may come from someone you meet tomorrow. But very often, it will come through a relationship, reputation, or room you entered long before you realized how valuable it would become.
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Until next week,
Lady Laide