Silly Personal Epiphany Regarding Successful Business

[Alfonso Crawford]

Something that just hit me:

Originally Posted by My Head, While Washing Dishes At Church

If I can use one hand to count how many people have even a vague interest in whether or not I'm alive or dead, I'm probably not connected enough to be successful in any endeavor.

The original wording was "one hand to count how many emails I get in a year," but hey. Now; I don't wanna go knockin' the hermit-lifestyle, 'cause it gave me a few great years myself; but a fella's gotta admit when an approach is and is not viable. Staying hidden, by myself, and contacting no one is not viable for good business.

So, uh, am I wrong? I kinda don't know for sure.

[Curtis2011]

Three big areas of life: Health, Wealth, and Relationships.

If you don't have all three "handled" you'll probably not be feeling the fulfillment that you desire. AND you probably won't be wildly successful.

The benefits of relationships (romantic + friends + business) are sooo intangible but so big.
I got the job I have now because I knew my boss before I applied for the job, and he knew that I was a good worker.

[InterfaceLeader]

Networking is key - but don't underestimate a few very powerful and valuable relationships versus a big spread of casual acquaintances. There's often an 80/20 thing going on.

Though I have heard more people will find a job through 'a friends of a friend' than anywhere else.

[Marth]

One exception to this is being a private investor
Ecommerce is unique too, content can be anonymous.

[Mounds]

Originally Posted by Alfonso Crawford

Staying hidden, by myself, and contacting no one is not viable for good business.

Are we talking about not advertising your business? Or general social interaction?
I'm very socially inactive and I like it that way. I do have a large business network though, which is quite important.

[Alfonso Crawford]

Advertising, social interactions, anything. Even a quiet business-network is a step above what I've got: I can hardly be said to exist. Living as I do makes for easy disappearances; but, since I'm not ghosting terribly often, the strong-point becomes moot.

[Sven Schoene]

Originally Posted by Alfonso Crawford

If I can use one hand to count how many people have even a vague interest in whether or not I'm alive or dead, I'm probably not connected enough to be successful in any endeavor.

Hey Alfonso,

That's EXACTLY the thing that I was scared of deep inside of me. Will anyone even care when I'm gone? Like, really care?

That's when I decided to turn my life around. I started to contribute to the people around me and make tons of friends.

Then I started to take it to the next level and wanted to contribute to the world. If I make a real difference in the world the world WILL notice it when I'm gone, right?

One the one hand it's stupid, because it's such an ego-thing. "I want people to care about me."

However, when we take a look at how our brain works and how humans are wired (Triune-Brain-Model, anyone?) it seems to me that we are designed to not want to be totally alone. It just made sense from an evolutionary point of view to live together in tribes.

I'm not saying that there never are any exceptions (@Mounds). I LOVE and NEED my personal time. I hate weeks or months which are completely packed with people and appointments every single day. It gives me a feeling of connectedness to the outer-world, which is important. However, I miss the inner connection to myself.

Ah, I guess good ol' Maslow was right all along:

The self-actualizers also had a different way of relating to others. First, they enjoyed solitude, and were comfortable being alone. And they enjoyed deeper personal relations with a few close friends and family members, rather than more shallow relationships with many people.

They enjoyed autonomy, a relative independence from physical and social needs. And they resisted enculturation, that is, they were not susceptible to social pressure to be "well adjusted" or to "fit in" -- they were, in fact, nonconformists in the best sense.

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