Humans are social beings, in that we crave company. We feel the need to bond and mingle with other members of our species. We crave companionship and if it is not available, we tend to seek it out. We also want and in many cases need appreciation and support from our companions.
Due to this inherent need, we are always trying to make connections and bonds with others. We are also looking for ways to make new acquaintances and friends. Sharp dressing, having an attractive personality or behaviour, being successful and famous are all, ways for this but another lesser known way is learning. It might surprise you when you find out that learning will help to cultivate bonds and connections. Not only this but it will also help to integrate you into the community and to earn you respect.
You want to know how that is possible, don’t you? Well then, let us see.
You become a “social builder” to establish better relationships
Everyone wants to be successful and making connections can help you to succeed. This is because one of the ways for getting to that most coveted point of success in your life is through relationships. Yes, that is right, you can go to great heights if you have talent, passion and if you meet the right people. The relationships can be your launch pad when it comes to launching yourself. They will form the foundation for you to build your skyscraper of success. But you need to be able to relate to people in order to create relationships with them. This means that you should have something in common with them or should have some similarity to draw on. This is where learning can really help you out.
If you know about multiple topics and fields, you will be able to strike up a conversation with any person on their favoured subject. This is particularly true because in most cases you develop a connection with someone based on something that will be vastly different from how you will get value from the relationship. For example, you may connect with someone on the basis of your mutual love for books, but this relation may help you to get a benefit in a different sector like a business partnership or an in within an authoritative body. As another plus to getting to make more friends, knowing more about various topics will help you to become more persuasive.
You become a “social connector” in your network
The more relationships and connections you have the more influence you will have with people of different communities. Having these “ins” in different sectors will help you to tackle any problem that life throws at you. You will also become more respected and revered in different communities and social circles due to the connections you make.
You will also become an intermediary for other people’s connection, i.e. people will meet others through you. This will, in turn, make you a benefactor for all, and the guy that you need to see to get things done.
Your ability to provide this kind of value will increase as you tap into more and more communities. The number of communities you are connected with will increase as you increase the knowledge in your knowledge base and start learning new skills. All of this will then lead to you having more friendships in different communities. Hence you become that all-important point of connection for people by learning new skills.
You become a “social magnet” to attract successful people
Many think that you have to be successful to attract successful people to you; this is based on the saying “People like people who are liked themselves”. This is a cliché and a misconception. The only thing you have to be is being interesting. One way to be interesting is to learn new things.
When you learn new information and skills, you become better equipped to build relationships with multiple communities. The broad knowledge base that you get from learning can help you connect with people and to build strong relationships. This will become possible as people will find you more interesting due to the fact that you will always have some new experience or skill to share.
While we are on the subject of clichés, another one states that “You are the average of the five people you spend time with”. Hence, it is good to be interesting if you want those five people to be successful.