I’m not much on goals, but this is one I can stand by. Say something smart.
Headed out on a meeting, a lunch, a coffee, a teambuilding, whatever. Even if it’s somebody you’ve met one hundred times before. A longtime client. Even if it’s a friend or your neighbor. Say something smart.
What are you going to talk about?
Well, that part is up to you, but you’d better go in with something between your ear holes.
“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”
Eleanor Roosevelt and a few others
Business meetings, sales pitches, or the barbeque on Saturday, all need you and your contribution.
Take a few minutes and think.
When they ask you what’s up? What’s going on? What’s new?
You’ve got nothing? No ideas?
It’s all too common.
A passive “Oh, nothing much.”
A sarcastic “Living the dream!”
That makes me sad. And it will make them sad too.
We’ve got Rockets flying around, fusion technology, ancient civilizations being discovered, and you’ve got nothing?
Do it better. Do some work. Load something useful into that big old dome of yours. Something you can share with the world.
And then share it.
And the next time you call they’ll say, “Yeah, let’s meet” because you brought something more than a free lunch the last time around. You said something smart.
Maybe they’ll even bring a friend. They’ll tell their colleague that you “always have the latest, always bring fresh ideas and solutions. Oh, and you pick up the tab too.”
Now the word is spreading. Hot dog!
We know ideas are the most powerful topics to discuss, followed by events, and then people.
That means colonizing Mars is the most powerful, followed by recent SpaceX launches, followed by Elon and his dating life.
Doing the preparation and saying something smart can help you expand on these ideas and connect with people at a deeper level.
Train hard, fight easy.
You win the medals at practice and pick them up at the meet.
Pick your cliché, but the idea is this. A little preparation goes a long way.
“Hey Laura, I snooped on LinkedIn and noticed that you went to Albuquerque State Community College. I love that campus. My kids ran track there last month.”
I mean, whatever, it’s something. That only took 2 minutes of preparation.
“Hey Laura, it looks like you were working on Zune back in the day. I love that product. Did you know that it was the first social music app with song sharing over Wi-Fi? Spotify just took that framework and pulled it into the cloud.”
Yeah, that’s a little closer to the mark. You’ll improve with time, your interactions will improve in tandem, and in a world with far too many meaningless goals, I think this is one worth keeping.
Say something smart.
