A cold open goes badly more often than the highlight reel version of networking ever admits, even for people who do this well. Larry Chiang’s take is that the recovery matters more than the opener, since almost nobody remembers a slightly awkward first thirty seconds a week later. The worst move after a bad opener is disappearing for the rest of the event out of embarrassment, which is what actually makes it memorable.
A short, honest line resets things fast, since admitting the opener came out rough does more work than pretending it didn’t happen. House money is the mindset that makes recovery possible, since one bad thirty seconds isn’t a loss you need to chase back immediately. If the conversation is clearly over, let it end and find the second chance later instead of pushing a dead exchange further.
That second chance is often a real one, a nod across the room later or a mutual friend’s introduction. Karma helps here too, since a short, genuine follow-up message the next day does more than you’d expect.
PQRST still applies to the second attempt, so come back with an actual question instead of trying to fix the first conversation directly. Most people give someone exactly one more shot if the second approach feels different from the first.
The goal isn’t a clean record all night, it’s more good conversations than bad ones by the time you leave. Larry talks through exactly this kind of recovery on Web12, since the fear of a bad cold open stops more people than the bad cold open itself.
Details: Watch Larry on recovery
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