Chapter 1

The Untapped Potential in Your Everyday Encounters

If you’re reading this in a public place with people nearby, take a look around and observe them. If you’re not in public, make a point of doing this the next time you are. Find someone who looks interesting, and think of something you could say to engage that person in conversation. It could be a comment or question about what the other is doing or what’s happening where you both are at that moment. It could be something that intrigues you about the other person about which you’d like to know more. Maybe you overheard part of a phone call that leads you to think he or she is in the same business as you. Maybe the person is carrying a backpack with a conference name and date embossed that is intriguing to you or wearing a unique or especially attractive piece of jewelry. Chances are if you approach the person respectfully, you can successfully initiate a conversation. Then, in that very instant, you will have opened the door to possibilities you didn’t even know existed until you took a chance by talking to a stranger.

I did this very thing a few years ago during a quiet Sunday afternoon flight from Boston Logan Airport, hardly the time or place you would expect to make two of the most lucrative business connections of a lifetime. But it was, and the results were measured in six figures and ongoing access to a huge network of business opportunities.

Nothing seemed unusual as I was standing near the gate waiting to board ...

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