This was always impossible for me. So I always relied on friends introducing me to their other friends.
I was unnaturally afraid of having to build up my network of friends from scratch. This held me back from moving across the country early on to build my career.
I could have used some kind of mentor for social interactions or something.
Being socially effective is a trainable skill like most other skills. The skills you build being confident and walking up to whomever you choose to say whatever you like, pays dividends in all areas of life. You're more likely to get funded, more likely to get the job and more likely to get the girl.
The only trap is that once you get good, you'll be addicted to doing something that doesn't scale. Fame scales, meeting people one at a time pretty much does not.
Yes but choosing life tactics based on scalability really makes one come across as inhuman and impossible to satisfy. That's fine if you want to be Elon Musk but I encourage the reader to carefully consider whether that is really what would make them happy.
I hope this isn't part of your tactic, because what you just said makes me think I'd chew my own leg off to get away from you if we met socially.
Edit: Just to clarify why I feel that way - you make it sound like there's a one size fits all model of what it means to be social, where the loud guy with good hair wins and all the dweebs lose. Maybe that's your niche, but you should know there's a bigger world out there.
I was unnaturally afraid of having to build up my network of friends from scratch. This held me back from moving across the country early on to build my career.
I could have used some kind of mentor for social interactions or something.