This evening we attended my best buddies 30th birthday, Rafal over at http://www.e-rafal.com/. Rafal and I have known each other since we attended NAIT back in 1999 for Computer Systems Technology.  We’ve had so many great memories and adventures and I know the next 30 will be filled with new memories and adventures and cannot wait to experience them with Rafal.

At the party we expected to see the same set of friends however were surprised when we saw a few people we did not know.  Since we started building our own business we’ve really become a lot better at meeting new people and just getting to know them for no other reason then getting to know new people.  I think this has to be my favorite part of this business we are building and what its taught us…getting to know people.  I love listening to what people have to say, where they have come from, where they are going, what kind of goals they have in life and whatever else comes up.  I know the types of conversations we have these days are more then just “so what did you get up to this weekend”.  Conversations we have with people are non-superficial, we actually want to connect with people and in turn they want to connect with us.  They want to know what we are about just as much as we do to them.

I think some people may misunderstand our intentions when they see us talking to new people and that’s a shame.  Just because those people want to talk about their favorite drink or what they did last weekend is no reason to look down on us for wanting to get to know new people on a more deeper level.  I’ve said before that one of our main goals in life is to impact people in a positive way.  Also like John Maxwell says:

“Want to impress others? Talk about your successes. Want to impact others? Talk about your failures.”

Meeting new people is such a great thing.  When was the last time you had a great meaningful conversation with someone new?