Sometimes in life you just don’t know what is going to happen. Interesting things are abound at any corner.
One of my college professors was skiing in Utah last spring. At the end of the last run on his last day of skiing, he was getting ready to take his skis off and fell, landing on a curb breaking his hip. Unfortunately this was a not a great ending to what would have been a fabulous ski vacation.
He was transported to Salt Lake City for a hip replacement and was cleared to fly home to Phoenix sometime later. On the flight home, Delta kindly moved him up to first class as he needed a bit more leg room. He was heavily medicated and was sound asleep for the majority of 2 hour hour flight.
About 20 minutes out of Phoenix, he woke up from his medication induced daze and realized he had been drooling all over himself while he slept. He looked over at the passenger to his his right in the window seat and took a double take. Initially thinking that the drugs were pretty good. He shook his head and said to the gentlemen, are you who I think you are? The man said probably. For the last few minutes of the flight they conversed until landing in Arizona. It turns out that the man was film director and child television star from Happy Days, Ron Howard.
My professor was very disappointed about his hip and that he did not have an opportunity to talk with Mr. Howard for the entire flight. He was very embarrassed about having made a mess of his shirt during the flight. I can only imagine that Ron Howard enjoyed the peace and quiet as it is likely quite challenging for celebrities to hide and enjoy their privacy while being in public.
The take away from this story is that you never know who you might meet in your travels, out and about. So many people I know are reluctant to be systematically and constantly out meeting new people. I tell many of my single people that I know that the person of their dreams is unlikely to come knocking on their front door. Make it a habit to be out at networking and social events. Learn to flirt, be receptive to increasing your extraversion, gregariousness and charisma. In our electronic world today, it is so easy to stay behind your computer or smartphone, yet you really don’t get the full impact unless you meet people face to face. For both your business and personal world, the person who meets the most people, often wins!