Growing up, I thought the world is huge. There are 7.8 billion people on this planet and I only knew a few of them. But really, the world is kind of small. Reaching out to people you think of as unreachable becomes easier once you know a few people. An example: Paul Graham.
Pretty well known in business, seems unreachable. However, Gigs was part of Y Combinator, so chances are our founders know Graham. So this would make him a 2nd level connection for me:
me -> our founders -> Paul Graham
(not sure if they actually know him, but if not, they definitely know someone who does. This would make him a 3rd level connection)
Let's get a little more ambitious, even: Barack Obama.
I know a founder I worked with in the past (he also was the one to introduce me to this connection idea). They know someone who organizes a big conference in Germany. They had Obama talk on their conference once. So Obama is a 3rd level connection:
me -> founder -> conference organizer -> Barack Obama
This does not mean that I could get an introduction to PG or Obama right now. But if I wanted to get in touch with them, I at least had a route that could prevent me from writing a cold email.
This boggles my mind.