It’s not about being lucky; it’s about talking to more people, more of the time and you can only do that by being present. New conversations and new connections will lead to new opportunities, both online and in person.

You just need to be open to the idea of talking to complete strangers and act on the signs you receive to make an opportunity happen.

But it can be hard to strike up a conversation with someone you don’t know without being seen as a nutter, although if you have something in common, it’s quite a different scenario.

At a conference, we are quite happy to talk to the strangers in the coffee queue at break time about how great the last session was because we have something in common.

Smokers will stand out in the freezing cold weather to get their ten-minute nicotine fix and chat to other smokers from different departments at the office, because of commonality. Commonality is the key reason that talking to a stranger is acceptable.

If only we could find the commonality with a few more people around us, I wonder how more enriched our lives would be. Who would we meet one day that would take us on a journey whether it is business or pleasure, on a journey that had that chance encounter never happened, we would otherwise have missed out on?

Build exciting relationships, online and off.

"On the way home from the conference, my wife & I were talking about all the speakers and giving awards for " best presentation", best content", best message", etc., and we both agreed that yours was the "best of the best" - great presentation, great content, great messages, and many things to take away at Rotary, personal and business levels"

Warwick Leyland, The Copy Shop

“I found your talk refreshing..it was clear, concise and humorous, and not full of self important bullshit.."

Tony Bozzard Senior Account Director, KMS Data Ltd