The Tablet Ripple!!!!

So there I was sitting at my favorite coffee shop, The Daily Grind. I am enjoying, likely my third large cup of Double French and ironically doing some work on a new article I am working on about unexpected connections being made at your local coffee shop when it happened....

I own a tablet PC which is likely the coolest toy I own. I like it for the portability and the ease of writing or typing on it and have adopted it as my most favorite thing to show off. I was deep in thought when a nice man and his young son sat down next to me. I could see him eyeing my tablet and I sort of smiled to myself as I knew that look and what it generally means. I waited a few minutes and he finally got up the courage to ask me about it. For the next five minutes or so we discussed all of its great features and all that I had been able to do with it. He mentioned he had been considering getting a couple for his employees who worked in the field which of course prompted my immediate question "oh what do you do?"

Within ten minutes we were chatting about this and that and I learned a lot about his business. Mainly that he was in need of some technology upgrades and some software that would make his company run more efficiently. I know next to nothing about technology and even less about the latest software that might help this poor guy but I do know people that could help him. Remember...knowledge equals power!

In the span of ten minutes, I had made a connection with someone that I could play a direct role in helping him solve a problem that was causing his company some pain and likely lots and lots of money. The value of our interaction could have been just a casual conversation about this neat tablet PC or it could be more indepth. I like indepth and so should you.

I have connected my new friend with my old friend Eric, who I have said for years is the next Bill Gates. Bottom line, he is brillant! The outcome of this connection remains to be seen but I suspect there is some real monetary value to connecting these two fellas. My new friend appreciates my connecting him and my other friend Eric appreciates meeting someone in a million years, he would likely never meet without some assistance.

I call the connection that I made for them both social capital. I have made a deposit in both of their accounts that regardless of their individual outcome enhances their image of me. They both understand that by putting them together, I have only the sincerest of interest in mind of them both achieving a favorable result. Does that result in actual dollars for me? Likely not. But I do feel good by making a difference and not letting what otherwise might have been a casual chance encounter slip by.

How many of these kinds of opportunities happen to you in a day? Focus on making that effort towards someone else and I suspect you will find yourself riding the wave of a ripple that means the world to someone else!

In case you want to meet the next Bill Gates...email him at eric@etoolsgroup.com.