I dreaded waking up at 5:30 to wait in line. I dreaded sitting around 2.5 hours until the store opened next to smelly people who have been sitting there for even longer than I. But I was in for a huge surprise.
As soon as people got in line, they were like self assembling robots. They immediately started interacting and talking to each other. Business cards were passed out, and contacts made. It was pretty amazing to watch.
I thought the people who wait for hours in line would be insane, but they weren't, but insanely interesting. One owned his own jewlery manufacturing company that used 3D printers to make models. Another 2 made routing hardware for satallites. I also met a brilliant 20Something DC area resident Steve, who started his own video game company. He is working on some cool flow engine stuff, and has gotten lots of attention from various people. Unfortunately, he had to take down his game due to "Pong" being trademarked by Atari. However, he is definitely someone to keep an eye on.
20Something TakeAway:
- Movers and Shakers: The people waiting in line next to you are typically affluent, educated, and tech savvy. They have the means to miss a day of work. In short, they are not your average grunt, but a passionate higher level person willing to wait hours in a line for a gadget -- just the people you want to get to know.
- Shared Passion: You automatically have an "In" with everyone in line. Just start off your conversation with the iPhone and steer the conversation where you want it to go. Unlike starting a conversation with the guy behind you in the airport security line, it's guaranteed that the person in line will walk to talk about Apple.
- 7 Hours with nothing to do but talk: It took me 7 hours from the moment I got in line to the moment I got the iPhone. That gives you a lot of opportunity to not only get to know the people directly next to you, but also anyone remotely near you in line. If you are active you can probably meet 20 people all together.
2 comments:
insanity is a relative term...
There's a lot of research out there that speaks to the value of forming ties efficiently, with people that provide you with access to a unique set of resources, knowledge, etc. e.g. it's more useful for job search to have a lot of weak ties (people you know only a little) than a strong redundant network where everyone knows each other, since weak ties provide you with access to new people, jobs, etc. Another example, promotions are predicted by forming ties with people in the dominant coalitions of organizations, not just anyone who happens to be around. The book to read: "The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations" by Rob Cross and Andrew Parker
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