🐼 You need friends, whether you like it or not
Just sweet tales, professional and otherwise
Heyaa
Today, I would like to share an image first.
Looks interesting, huh? Happy, carefree, fresh.
Is it a clicked photograph or a hand-drawn portrait? Throw around a wild guess if you want. If you don’t: This image is Ai-generated.
One of my friends generated this using Leonardo AI…
And I use Leonardo for my merch store illustrations sometimes. I found Leonardo to be that good. A friend introduced it to me a few days ago.
Yep, I get helpful advice quite often. Abhijeet has been an amiable kid right from school (no brag intended).
Before we move forward, let me introduce you to today’s newsletter sponsor.
Use GPT4 to Comment with 1 Click on LinkedIn Prospects
Join 15,000+ LinkedIn power users and supercharge your social selling with Engage AI!
Imagine effortlessly writing insightful comments that break the ice and build relationships with prospects. With Engage AI as your assistant, you'll save precious time while achieving conversions with every added touchpoint.
OK, back to my story…
You know, as a kid, I was quite popular in school. Not as a bully. No, no, no, no. I wasn’t a bad guy. Not in my movie.
I had made quite a bunch of friends. I had friendly relations with everyone. Ummm, maybe I should rephrase… I didn't have unfriendly relations with anyone.
Was it tough? Making friends? Nopes. It was quite easy. You asked for something. Did a bit of chit-chat, and voila… “We’re friends.”
The only problem was: asking. The introverted me had trouble approaching people. I still do.
It’s been over 15 years since I left school. And I haven’t made a lot of friends in these years. Not offline, at least.
With online social networking, though, I made a lot of friends. A LOT!
Some have become really close, while others are mostly work buddies. And then, there are a few with whom I can have random chats for hours.
The truth is: You need friends, whether you like it or not. It’s not that you need 150 or 50… whatever few you can have, you should have.
You need them for help, sometimes professional, sometimes otherwise.
They don’t have to be perfect or knowledgeable enough to help you out. They just have to be there and figure things out together.
You just talk about things, whatever you're comfortable with.
That's how things happen; that’s how ideas flow. You just talk, and you stop when it’s time to stop. No hard feelings, no awkward byes.
That’s how I come across new things. That’s how I was able to set up the Book Blabber blog. And that’s how the merch store came into existence. Read here…
All from random talks that lead to ideas and then execution.
You need friends… who support you… who are ready to help you in need.
I don’t know if I am the best person to be called a friend. I don’t feel any attachment to most people. Still, I have got people who talk to me and share themselves with me. I don’t know why. Probably their definition of friendship is something I don’t know.
I have friends who are there for me.
Like one friend introduced me to Leonardo AI over a random chat (and upgraded my “tech stack”), another friend is helping me test my store and market it. A few friends gave me a shout-out, too. And my store has made sales.
Seems like I can make this store a profitable side hustle someday. Thanks to friends. Without them, I would have been a frog in the well.
So, even if you are an introvert, you need friends… a lot of friends. The real close will only be a few, of course, but many others will look out for you.
And that was all for today.
Bidding adieu.
Live long and prosper.
See you next week, with another story.