Hi all! Welcome to my project – the goal is to meet 10,000 different people for 1 hour each to see what comes of opening doors for no particular reason. Today I wanted to tell you why and how I started this endeavor. Let’s start with why.
When I was at Penn State University (4 of the best years of my life), I was involved in several different clubs: THON, Beta Theta Pi, Habitat for Humanity, Lion Ambassadors (tour guides), and Homecoming. Because of this, I was always stopping to say hi to people I knew around campus (my friends hated walking around with me). So going from a college town to the city of Philadelphia, I lost that feeling and wanted to recapture it. I figured, I’ll just get to know everyone around me, and then it’ll be easy to start recognizing people again.
The other reason is one that many of us probably struggle with at some stage in life. I worked hard in high school to get into a good college. I worked hard in college to get a good job (I began my career at Deloitte Consulting). And once I got my job, I thought, “Now what?” I needed a purpose to my life other than climbing the ladder until retirement, so I took on this goal as something to work towards that provided fulfillment along the way.
A few other things that helped inspire it: the idea of sonder, Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hours Theory, and Admiral McRaven’s UT commencement speech where he says the average American will meet 10,000 people in their lifetime. I’m fascinated by the idea of making people more than just extras in the story of my life, I’m interested to see what, if anything, I’d become an expert in after doing this, and I’m very curious to see what happens when you compress that 10,000 number to the age of 35 or so to see where those relationships go.
Now, how I started it is the culmination of a couple of iPhone notes, my sales experience, and a small window of inspiration.
I have a note in my iPhone notes from January 16, 2014, 12:19am that says “Introduce myself to 10,000 people in one year. 200 people/week. 40 people/day (weekends off). 10 min conversation = 7 hrs/day.” Obviously, this has changed, but it’s the earliest documentation I have of the idea.
I have another note from March 26, 2015, 5:42pm that says, among other things, “My ability to meet people is what will take me to where I want to be.” It wasn’t until I reread this note months later that it clicked and I decided to take advantage of that window of inspiration. I equate it to the same way you sometimes need to take advantage of a small window of motivation to get out of bed on the mornings. I just decided I was going to do it.
So, on Thursday, October 1, 2015 at 5:44pm, I cold emailed Jim Brady, CEO of BillyPenn.com, because they run a Who’s Next series, and I thought that’d be a great group of people to meet.
“Hey Jim!
I’m planning to attend the Who’s Next Bash this year. I actually just caught wind of it because I was reading about Philly musicians on the rise and stumbled on the Who’s Next series.
I have a personal goal to meet with 10k individuals for an hour each in aggressively about 4 years (it may take longer, but that’s the goal). Each of the categories you covered so far are ones that I plan on meeting people in along with: the guy who sells newspapers on the corner on my way to work, homeless people, local business owners, elderly people – basically I just have a strong desire to know those around me.
Why am I telling you this? Because I wanted to see if you’d be interested in being one of those 10k people. I’m hoping to keep track of my efforts on a blog and Instagram so I can talk about how we met and take a picture with everyone I meet. Other than that, I have nothing to sell you on other than the fact that I’m a nice guy and as my network grows, yours will grow with it.
So what do you think – would you be willing to meet sometime over the next week/weekend?
Look forward to hearing from you!
Rob Lawless”
He replied two days later.
“Rob,
That’s an ambitious goal for sure. I’m glad to be one of those people, but can’t do it in the next few weeks. Not in Philly much in October. So if you’re OK with November, glad to meet up…
Thanks,
Jim”
Jim and I met up for lunch at Cosi on November 11, 2015 where he asked something along the lines of “So what number am I, like 2,000 or something?” and I replied, “No, you’re number 1.”
The project had officially begun.
As I write this, I’ve met with 102 people over the past 8 months and am super excited to see where the next 9,898 people take me. Thanks for following along and I hope to keep you entertained along the way!
Go meet someone new!
Rob