The 100 history of the House of Medici reminds me of today’s over focus on networking the expense of everything else. In their rise to power they kept a keep eye on the numbers, and it was through their accounting methods that they became rich along with carefully placed networking and power moves. The generations of the end no longer cared for directly managing their banking, which was the foundation of their wealth and thus power. Instead they lavished in parties and networked for the sake of networking as they acted as if they were aristocrats. Their bank went bankrupt and so did the family. “It’s who you know” motto didn’t serve them when they stopped focusing on the groundwork of crunching the numbers and being strategic about their social circles.