Never Eat Alone emphasizes the themes of GVAC—generosity, vulnerability, accountability, and candor—as the fundamental principles of building a strong network and achieving long-term success. Ferrazzi and Raz highlight how GVAC goes beyond focusing on the self as a means for achieving success. Generosity means developing an authentic desire to help others to succeed without expecting an immediate return. Vulnerability establishes trust between one’s network through radical honesty. Accountability ensures that people in one’s network rely on the connector with their tasks, goals, and missions. Candor creates a community of trust wherein both critique and praise are used to better the entire network. This is how a meaningful, connected network can be created. By practicing GVAC, individuals can build networks based on trust and reciprocity, and foster those networks through accountability, vulnerability, and candor. These qualities are part of the metatextual elements of Never Eat Alone, which helps to establish trust between authors and readers. In terms of generosity, Ferrazzi leads by example since the aim of the book is to help others to succeed.

In the first section, the authors advocate for a mindset shift from a transactional approach to a relational one. Instead of viewing networking as a means of extracting value from others, or taking full advantage of them, Ferrazzi and Raz encourage readers to focus on adding value to the lives of their network contacts.