James Altucher summarizes Covey's 7 habits of highly effective people with two words.

Be proactive.

Well done, sir: http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/29/the-most-effective-habit-for-entrepreneurs/

great stuff -- James always has good advice rolling around.

Yes, and it's a nice counter to the voice inside my head that tells me to procrastinate.

"If you want to raise money: Contact 100 VCs or angels and share with them your business. If they all say “no” then build up for six months, send them all notes on your progress every month, and go out and raise money again six months later. If you have no progress then start a new business. It didn’t work."

I really like that quote from the TC article, I would follow it up this thought:

"Newsletter. When you meet people at the targets (either randomly or strategically), ask them if you can add them to a special newsletter you send out quarterly where you include inside info about your industry based on your unique position within it. Who can refuse that? We did that at my last startup and it worked well. If there is one secret in this post, this is it. I love it because it fires on lots of cylinders: it keeps you in their mind while at the same time (if you do it right) showing your company is awesome and that you are awesome (given how you choose to frame the insights)."

- Gabriel Weinberg - Startup M&A

A special newsletter you send out quarterly sounds compelling, but it's actually hard to think of awesome stuff you'd like to spam important people with. :)