I have made it a habit of being friendly to everyone I come in contact with on a daily basis, and I think you should as well. It’s not the most comfortable thing in the world to start a conversation with a total stranger, but if you don’t, you will potentially miss 100’s or even 1000’s of opportunities. Plus, once you get over your fear and just do it, you’ll have a great time making connections and building relationships with people all over town! I’ll get into this topic more in another post, but I thought I’d tell you about two recent conversations I had that may turn into something more!

First, I was at lunch with my dad yesterday when he saw an old friend and started chatting. So I, not wanting to stand there idly, started speaking with his wife, who I knew to be somewhat of an entrepreneur. We immediately hit it off and were engrossed in a business discussion when she mentioned her next idea for a venture. I won’t get into the details of it at this point, but I believe I may have found my next business partner! Just because I decided to be friendly. This also give me the opportunity to get into an industry and a niche that I never would have gotten into before.

Second, last night, when I was at Twist getting desert with my wife and some of our best friends, I noticed the man at the next table wearing a Breitling watch, the EXACT watch that I want. As you can imagine, I was a bit nervous to talk to this guy who looked to be mid to late thirties, was spending $300+ on dinner (I’ve never seen 4 people with so much sushi in my life) and obviously able to afford an $18,000 watch! Well, as we were finishing up, I asked him about his watch, and wouldn’t you know it, he opened right up! So 30 minutes later I have formed a mini friendship with Tony, the owner of the largest web hosting company in Atlanta! I got his contact info and I plan to hound him until he agrees to let me buy him lunch! It’s clear he has expensive taste, so it might cost me $100, but that is a small price to pay to get an hour with a man who built a $280 Million business from the ground up!

I hope this has been helpful to some of you, and I want you to know that my goal with my writing is to engage, equip, and empower other young entrepreneurs. With that in mind, I plan to author a few more posts regarding networking. These will include the details of how I’m meeting 10-15 new people every week and some ideas on how to get over the fears associated with starting conversations with complete strangers! Let me know if this is something you would be interested in, and let me know if there are any other topics you’d like covered! See ya!

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