A highly successful former executive told me at a recent dinner:
“I used to be somebody when I was running my company. But after I left, I felt like I was nobody.”
He initially enjoyed the anonymity of blending into the crowd. But soon, that feeling shifted to anxiety — what if he stayed a nobody forever?
So he decided to change and become a different person — the kind of person who approaches others first and strikes up random conversations. The kind of person who smiles at strangers and sends check-in messages first.
Now, he says he feels like somebody again. Except this time, it’s based on his character and personality, not his boardroom presence or wealth.
This is particularly important for us, middle-aged men. We can’t sit back and expect others to come to us and start conversations. We’re probably the least attractive class of human beings 🙂 We’ve got to be the ones who smile, strike up random conversations, and send a check in message first.