Now, if you were a betting person, what kind of connection would you say is most helpful for landing new job leads -- strong ties or weak ties?

Surprisingly, weak ties are more helpful.

Yes, that's correct -- if you want to attract more opportunities into your life, it's better to have a lot of casual acquaintances than a lot of best friends.

Why?

Because when you're great friends with someone, your world's tend to merge in some ways. You hang out at the same places. You move around in the same circles. You do the same activities. You read the same books.

On the other hand, weak ties aren't like you.

(That's why you're not great friends with them.)

And this means, more often than not, that they move around in different circles, and have access to a completely different set of people than you.

This is what makes them so useful for attracting new opportunities.

So, how can you create more weak ties in your life?

Well, here's my favorite way:

Take up a new hobby.

Yes, it's as simple as that.

Enroll for an evening class, or take up a new sport, or go along to some dance lessons, or learn a new language -- just take yourself to some place where you don't know anyone and where it's all new to you.

Over time, you'll get to know all the people there.

And you can search for them on LinkedIn and add them to your network.

We've already talked about a few ways that you can leverage your LinkedIn network to attract job opportunities and get invited to interviews.

But I've not yet shared my best stuff with you. ;-)