Everyone you meet can change your life

Hello and welcome to the Soul of Innovation podcast. I'm Thomas Anglero and I want to talk to you about how I know everyone you meet can change your life. This past week I spoke at two different colleges to a total of 1,000 students and at both events standing ovations afterwards and all that wonderful praise. Thank you very much to all the 1,000 students. Who patted me on the back, tons of hugs, all these wonderful things. It really, really, the warmth and love, I truly appreciate it. Thank you so much. But the reflection I have after this event and after, you know, when so many people cheer and so many people clap, clap, clap, like encore type stuff, you go, I went back to the green room and the conference organizer jumps in my arms. The speaker after me goes, "You just ruined my session. How am I going to follow up from you?" All these wonderful compliments. So you know you did a good job. And yet, after all that, after all that, I only had— I mean, there were a bunch of people who lined up to say thank you afterwards and all that. But after all that, out of 1,000 people, only one student, one student did the proper follow-up. Proper follow-up being contacted me on LinkedIn or contacted me, invited me for coffee and all that. But because he did that. He even met me after I spoke. A whole bunch of people met me after I spoke. And I asked him if he wanted to walk me out. He walked me out. He pitched to me his company. Because he was so persistent, because he had his dream, right? So this is true innovation. True innovation is that you don't care what other people think. You have this vision. This thing has to come to life, and you don't care. You're going to do whatever it takes. This is what he did. He walked me all the way out. He was very patient. There was a group of people that they were embarrassed to come to me, so they chose this one girl. I guess they drew straws or something. And she was the poor, poor, poor girl. She had to walk over to me and say, "Hey, our entire group wants to say thank you, but I was the person chosen." So I gave her a hug too. Fantastic. But this guy was patient enough while people were interrupting us while we were talking. He was patient to stand there and wait because he wanted to make sure his entire story was told. About his dream. Because he was that persistent, a few days later I got an email from him saying he'd like to meet me for coffee. Same day I got an email from a company I'm on the board of notifying me that a group of VCs have some extra cash and that they would take a second look if us board members recommended any individual startup they would take a look at that company. So what did I do? I recommended his company. I contacted him, sent him the link to the application, and he was beyond happy, right? That's a startup's dream. Cost me nothing. Share the love, help people out. That's what I'm there for. But it was his persistence. It was him going beyond the discomfort of, "Oh, I don't want to talk to the speaker. Oh, this is too much work. Oh, I'm scared." He didn't see that, right? This is true innovation. This is beyond the passion. I need to bring to life this idea no matter what it costs. Only 1 person out of 1,000? Only 1 person out of 1,000 this week. What a reflection, huh? What about you? Have you ever gone up to a speaker after a conference? Have you ever gone up to anyone who's inspired you, motivated you, and talk to them and tell them, "You inspired me. You motivated me." Or did you just say, "Well, that was fun. Who's the next person? Oh, let me go home. Oh, let me go back to my desk. Oh, let me go back to my life." You see, everyone you meet can change your life. That is what you're supposed to walk around with. Everyone you meet can change your life. Repeat that in your head for the rest of your life and remind yourself that, you know, when I walk down the street, um, I like making eye contact because I like existing. I've actually spent days where I said, I'm gonna smile at everybody I meet. Over 50% of the people always smile back. Small percentage think I'm nuts. Another small percentage are just angry as hell, and there's nothing you can do to help those people. But the over 50% that smile back— but the thing that I love the most is that after they passed you, they always do the double take, turn around, and they do that extra smile and say, thank Thank you so much for lighting my day. You see, everyone we meet— and I'm not just saying talk to, but the people who you pass by, the people you sit next to on the bus, the people that you sit next to on the train, it doesn't matter. Everyone's been placed there to help you. Walk around with that. It's like every day's Christmas. That's the reality. The question is, why aren't you walking around with this type of perspective that is so lifting, so much more relaxing than walking around, you know, with people saying, "Oh, why is he looking at me?" God knows how many times I've walked down the street and women, I make eye contact, when they give me this look, "Oh, he's just staring at me. Oh, look at him, he thinks I'm so pretty." Or they do their hair. I'm like, "What the hell is all that about?" Everyone you meet can change your life. Everyone you meet can change your life. That person who's there for that one moment that you sit next to them on the bus or the train, that person can be the person who's going to give you your next job. I have a great story. There was a guy, he wanted to do anything, anything to be an actor. He moved to Hollywood, going to as many auditions as possible, was never working out. He, of course, he needed to make some money, so he started waiting tables, right? Being a waiter at a restaurant, waiting tables. And every day there was an old man who would come in, sit down at the table by himself, order the same thing every single day. And this young guy, you know, he, after a while, he would always bring the old man his sandwich and coffee every single day. And after a few weeks or months, I forgot the duration of time, the young man asked the old man, "So, so what do you do?" And the old man said, You know, I'm an agent at the film studios. This is the person that the young man has been looking for. And this person he's been looking for has been in front of him the whole time for these last several weeks and last several months. Everyone you meet can change your life. Everyone you meet can change your life. Stay, exist with that perspective. Everyone you meet can change your life. This past week I was fortunate enough, I hope to change many people's life, but I know one out of a thousand I gave him a moment. And gave his startup another chance. And I wanted to do it to 999 more, but they just walked by. Well, they gave me hugs, but they didn't see it as their moment. Everyone you meet can change your life. Until next episode, you want to follow me more, go to anglero.com. Follow me on Facebook. I'll be posting more to Instagram. Go forth, spread beauty and light. I love you. Take care. Bye-bye.