Stock up on chutzpah!
The other day I was eating lunch at Boulder Beer and I noticed a dude sporting Communist Party, the uber-popular threadless tee.
At any given time I carry with me a handful of $7 off coupons for threadless in case this sort of thing happens, but on this particular day all I had was my business card.
I walked over to his table, handed him my card and said “nice tee, shoot me an email and I’ll send you a free shirt”. In case you didn’t know, threadless employees get 10, that’s right, 10 free shirts every single month. I’ve worked there for nigh on 2.17 years now, which means I have to rent separate apartments to house all the threadless tees I own.
Anyway, I’ve pulled this maneuver in the past and people rarely follow through and contact me, which I try not to cry myself to sleep about. However, this dude emailed me that week and I sent him the shirt.
He emailed me yesterday to inform me that he loves the shirt and that he just so happens to be the CU graduate student body president and he’s interested in getting threadless involved with his events.
Regardless of how it plays out, this is a great example of why it’s better to take the risk and say hello.
These are the types of interactions that can lead nowhere, or, they can lead to connections and opportunities that (probably) wouldn’t have manifested themselves otherwise.
Having the impulse to approach a stranger is effortless, actually doing it requires chutzpah. My advice: stock up on chutzpah.
