If there is one thing I learned during childhood and my teens, it is how important good friends are. Then, during education and throughout my career, I learned in addition to that how important a good network is; not only in respect to the many social contacts, but also to opportunities which may arise through the network, for example a job posting at the company you always wanted to work for. Many job postings nowadays are not even publicly advertised, as they are being filled through existing networks of friends, co-workers, ex co-workers, family, etc.

Skype has become increasingly popular over the past few years. I had been introduced to Skype through a friend om mine 4 years ago. In the beginning I had installed the program onto my PC and used it mainly as a program for instant messaging. Until I found that Skype offers many more additional services, such as voice over IP (VoIP), video chat, and for a small fee making phone calls to a real telephone, all at the touch of a button on my PC.

I tried following the same principle, and during a month I asked many different salespeopel whether he would bargain. I did receive a lot of “no’s”, but also a “yes” a couple of time. Even my favourite shop, where I buy shirts, gave me a 8 Euro discount on 2 shirts, provided I would buy two and not just one. Since I buy at least 10 shirts per year, that is a discount of 45 Euros per year. It might not seem much… but as they say, small amounts also count.