When I was growing up, I was a pretty shy kid. I’m sure it was because of the fact that I was an only child and we moved around a lot. While I tended to get really good at adjusting to my new environments, every move meant having to start over when it came to friends. It might have been a lot easier had I had a brother or sister, at least then I would have had more interaction with someone my own age at home. Since both of my parent’s worked however, I still got a lot of experience meeting (and being around) new people. As I got older, I was one of those kids that was pretty quiet around new people, but very outgoing around those that I knew well. This is a very common characteristic among a lot of teenagers, and I was no different.
As I got older and went through my own personal struggles I started to realize that I wasn’t having as much success as some of my peers. I had better grades, a stronger motivation to work hard, and I felt had generally more potential then they had. So why wasn’t I able to get to their level? The answer was simple, I was too introverted. While my personality was charming to friends, I felt so reserved around strangers that it took me a while to get my career started. This is a common theme. If you see some of the top managers, directors, and CEOs around the world you’ll find that a great many of them weren’t the brightest students. The fact of the matter is that being able to relate to people can sometimes be your greatest asset in life.
There is no doubt that an education is important, and you shouldn’t read this article and think you can coast through school if you learn to socialize. But having an education is only a part of the winning equation. Our society thrives on the social element. You can see it in the recent explosion of social networking sites across the internet and the countless reality shows on TV. People want to relate to other people. They want to be emotionally attached and have someone to root for (or cheer against). The key is in the connection, once you have that, you are allowed a lot of leeway.
This phenomenon is also evident in the blogging world. One of the reasons that famous bloggers like John Chow and Jeremy Schoemaker have achieved the level of success they have is that once people are introduced to them (via whatever means) they seem to stay around because they feel an emotional attachment to what they are doing. While John has numerous articles on food (straying from the make money online core topic of the site) his readers don’t seem to mind, so much so that it’s actually become a part of his site’s charm. That type of result wouldn’t be possible unless people related to John personally, not just to his writing. He talks about this briefly on his article about building credibility. While I can’t currently use my real name on the site (due to restrictions at my day job), hopefully once my dreams start to take off a little more I’ll be able to do that. For me personally, I’m not currently in a position where I could risk my primary income for my family’s sake, and while understandable, I’m sure this site has grown at a slower pace because of it.
You should think long and hard about how you can improve your own interpersonal skills to help you achieve your goals in life. If you look at some of the most successful people in the world, one of the characteristics that is common (in most) is an innate ability to relate to people. If you can reach them on an emotional level to where they feel an attachment with you, then they’re more likely to get hired at that great job, get that promotion you’ve wanted, or even get them to read (and stay reading) your blog.
