

How To Meet Anyone - adebelov
http://www.virool.com/blog/how-to-meet-anyone-from-steve-wozniak-to-president/

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alanctgardner2
I have to hand it to this guy, he has gotten his marketing company exposure on
HN twice now in as many weeks, and his other accomplishments are quite
notable. The thing that rubs me the wrong way about his articles is they
always seem to be predicated on the notion that being really incredibly
outgoing to the point of recklessness is the road to success. For example,
this post should probably have been titled 'How to bum-rush the Russian Prime
Minister and live to tell the tale'. The last one could have been 'How to
screw over your competitors and an innocent event organizer to further your
startup'.

He is very accomplished, but one wonders if there isn't a way to accomplish
the same things without bending the rules so hard.

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InfinityX0
Also, given the quality of the article in proportion to the speed at which
this article was upvoted, I'm not totally sure it wasn't manipulated in some
fashion. Decent advice but not worthy of being #1.

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jkuria
I also suspect a voting ring and was surprised as well that this was the #2
article on HN. I skimmed over the sub-heads and it is full of meaningless
platitudes. "Be proactive" "Be outgoing" "Dream big" ?

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adebelov
i am the author of this post. seriously voting ring? guys, the title of the
article was "How To Meet Steve Wozniak and President" - that alone drove a ton
of clicks, when people found it useful, they upvoted it! I can tell you that
in a matter of 2 hours, we got around 50 votes, I suspect no more than 6 of
them came from people that I know.

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nessus42
I interviewed Kate Bush a long time ago. This may or may not impress you, but
since she's a notorious recluse, it's quite impressive to anyone who is a Kate
Bush fan.

Q. How did I do this? A. I made it my life's goal for a couple of years.

So, I'd agree with the OP that you can accomplish all sorts of crazy things if
you are obsessive enough about it. In retrospect, however, I might have put
those years to better use, and I'm not sure that all that obsession was
particularly healthy. I.e., it didn't make me happy.

On the other hand, it's pretty cool to have interviewed Kate Bush, so no
regrets.

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robterrell
Link to the interview?

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floralskirts
I second this request. That is impressive!

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nessus42
Oh, at this point in my life the silly questions that I asked are just
terribly embarrassing to me! I'm sure that you can locate it though, if you
really care. The truth is out there!

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curt
I've had the pleasure to meet a couple President's and a VP of the United
States, Governors, hit golf balls with a Hall of Fame running back, drink with
Mark Cuban and more just because I saw an opportunity and took advantage of
it. As an example, I found out the President was going to a bar near me for a
surprise visit so I got there quickly and placed myself where I knew he'd have
to pass. Managed to get a hand shake and exchange a few words. You'd be amazed
at how easy it is to meet people if you have a can-do attitude and use a
little bit of creativity.

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jarek
You seem to have high standards for "meet"

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anu_gupta
I think you mean low standards.

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zalzane
meta: This is the second time in several weeks that we've seen a virool post
at the top of HN with loads of votes within just an hour of its posting. It
sure isn't suspicious that a company based around viral marketing just happens
to have excellent luck getting their HN posts in the top spot on the front
page.

If all of their marketing tactics are this transparent, I don't think I would
be very inclined to do business with them.

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InfinityX0
Want to find anyone's e-mail? There's an app for that: <http://linksy.me/find-
email>. Pretty useful.

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anonymouz
As long as "anyone" has a Gravatar account with an easy to guess email
address. I don't think you'll get Medvev's or Clinton's email in this way...

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smacktoward
TL;DR Stalk them.

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csmatt
When I was living in North Carolina, I was reading 'The Mythical Man-Month'
and decided to check the wiki page for Fred P. Brooks Jr. (the author). I was
surprised to find that he actually worked for UNC Chapel Hill. I found a
faculty email address and I was sitting in his living room the following week!

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jetti
"- If you do come in close contact with someone you would like to meet, don’t
be intimidated, approach them!"

This line pretty much sums up the entire article for me. It takes a "all about
my wants" kind of approach. It never takes into account how the target of the
meeting would feel. I for one, would be pissed if I was at a charity event and
people came up to me asking about their own thing. Just doing what you want
with blatant disregard to people's feelings is definitely a way to meet any
person you want, but I just don't think the outcome would be the same as in
this article.

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mdonahoe
So? What would you do about it?

It's a risk the "target" won't talk to you, but there is little downside. They
might think you are a pushy jerk, but they aren't going to do anything. They
will just immediately forget you.

If you don't talk them, then nothing will ever happen, guaranteed.

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jmccaffrey
Haha, why does Steve Wozniak have the "Bad Boys Bail Bonds" lanyard my
girlfriend does?

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x-sam
Reminds me a book "Never Eat Alone" by Keith Ferrazzi.

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anonaccount27
$$$$$

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falava
Very nice article, reminds me this from Tim Ferris:

[http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/12/10/how-to-
get-g...](http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2007/12/10/how-to-get-george-
bush-or-the-ceo-of-google-on-the-phone/)

