The featured image is meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but there is an element of truth to it.
Growth, development, success, all take time and are a struggle. After all, anything worth doing is worth doing well. How do you get good at something? Practice. Sometimes practicing is fighting. Fighting for improvement, fighting for understanding, fighting just to be an option for your market.
The same holds true with any skill you may not want to improve upon, but NEED to improve upon. Especially as a typical creative (shout out to the introverts!) being social, putting yourself out there, striving to make things happen, all involves communicating. Talent alone isn't enough, a head for sales and an understanding of human nature is key.
Hence the term netWORKING.
You want to get the gig? You want to make the deal? You want to grow the sales? You want you want you want? How bad do you want it? Show me any "overnight success" and I'll show you the "dog years" of "overnight." Marathon, not sprint.
If you'd love to see a certain connection happen, then don't be afraid to put yourself out there or try to make it happen. You already don't have the market/client/gig, so it can't be worse than what you don't have. Try the email, make the call, see about the appointment, and stand up for yourself.
Cue RuPaul.