“If you help enough people gain what they want in their life, you’ll have all of what you want.”
– Zig Ziglar

Welcome to the Steve Show. Today, I want to talk about connecting with other human beings. So, why do I want to talk about connecting with other human beings? Let me share a story with you.

I was just at a Whole Foods about a month ago, I approach the teller and I asked her these questions, “What was the best part of your day?” She looked at me and said, “You looking me in the eye.”

Then we got into a conversation. I was taken back. But then it occurred to me that so many people forget that tellers are human beings too. Instead, they treat them like machines. Then it really hit me how important it is to go back to the basics of connecting with human beings no matter how busy or occupied you are in life. Over time, I have been inspired to make it a point to start connecting with the people on this planet.

I remember when I was dating my wife before we got married and she would always say, “Hey, you don’t take time to smell the roses.” I was that guy. I was so much on a mission to do what I wanted to do, to work in my business, that I didn’t slow down enough to see what’s going on.

And now I can tell you by taking that extra little bit of time, just even looking someone in the eye, just connecting with them for a minute; it’s changed everything for me. I’ve gotten more deals in business, I’ve made more friends, and I really feel how valuable it is to be a human being on this planet.

I’m convinced that I have what I have in my life because I focus on other people and help them. And I’m not the first person to say this. You know, Zig Ziglar always said, “If you help enough people gain what they want in their life, you’ll have all of what you want.”

When I was with John Assaraf at his house in San Diego, he said something at dinner to all of us, “You know, people get so caught up on making a million dollars or whatever amount that they want to make. If they actually flipped that and they actually focus on helping give a million dollars-worth of service away, they would actually gain that and become a millionaire.”

Just by focusing differently, instead of focusing on making money, focus on who are you going to help. That’s what business is all about. Tony Robbins also said, “If you’re in business, you’re in the human business.” Because it doesn’t matter if you have a product or a service, you’re helping people with whatever you’re helping them with.

I want to tell you one other story. I was raising money for one of my companies, I was at a lunch and I was talking to these two investors, and the server kept interrupting asking some questions. I was starting to get a little irritated about the whole thing. The two other guys left (they didn’t invest) and I’m packing my stuff up and paying for the lunch and the server comes up and says, “Hey, can I take a look now?”

I said, “Well, what does it matter now?” I was kind of whatever. So, I turn my laptop around and show this server what we were talking about and then she looks at me and says, “I’ll invest.”

I was like, “What?” She was the owner of the restaurant and her server, one of the servers couldn’t come in and she was filling in in the server position only because someone failed to come in that day.

I then called the other two guys that said, “Hey, remember that server that was there?” They remembered her because she was kind of intrusive in our meal. And uh, I said, “Well, she just invested.” And they’re like, “What?” Both of those guys ended up investing.

This situation changed my outlook on life. Because being honest with myself here, I was a little irritated in the situation, however, because I wasn’t so pissed off, I didn’t entirely push the waitress away. Because I took the time to connect with her for that moment and show her what we were doing, I ended up gaining three investors from that meal.

What I thought was my adversity, became my advantage.

So, where are you not connecting with other human beings and losing opportunities in your life? These are the things you want to pay attention to. If you want some things in your life, serve others.

I look forward to hearing what positive breakthroughs you get in life by taking the time to connect!

Choose Gratitude Create Freedom

Steve Napolitan