I have never met a stranger in my life. Planes. Elevators. Grocery store lines. It doesn't matter where I am. My family finds it exhausting.
It's just how I'm wired.
I will find out your name, where you're from, and what you're working on before we part ways, and chances are I'll remember you. I've had full conversations in elevator rides. I've exchanged contact information in grocery store lines. I've started business relationships on planes that are still going years later.
My family has a different word for it. They roll their eyes. Melissa has learned to bring a book whenever we go anywhere together because she knows that whatever the estimated time of arrival is, I'll add at least thirty minutes to it by talking to someone.
She's not wrong.
But here's what I know from a lifetime of never meeting a stranger: the most important conversation you'll ever have is rarely the one you planned. It's the one that happens because you were paying attention, you were open, and you said hello first.
I've met partners, donors, collaborators, and lifelong friends in the most random places imaginable. Not because I was networking. Because I genuinely believe that every person I encounter has something worth knowing. Everyone has a story, a perspective, a connection I hadn't thought of, and I'm curious enough to find out what it is.
That curiosity is what built everything I have. It started long before I knew what I was building.
↳ The people who change your life rarely show up in the places you expected them. They show up in the grocery store line and the elevator and the middle seat on a three-hour flight. Stay open. Say hello first. You never know who's standing next to you.
↳ Genuine curiosity about people is not a soft skill. It is the foundation of every meaningful relationship, partnership, and opportunity I have ever built. You cannot fake it, and you cannot build anything lasting without it.
↳ My family finds it exhausting. I find it energizing. That difference tells you everything you need to know about why I still show up every day with the same enthusiasm I had at 16 working in a shoe store. People are endlessly interesting. Never stop being curious about them.
I've never met a stranger.
I hope I never do.