Early in the days of my Master's degree work in education, I discovered my thinking style. (To find out your style, scroll to the bottom of this page.)
I'm what they call a 'concrete random' thinker.
Though people cannot always be neatly packaged, if you are curious, intuitive, creative, adventurous, and self-directed, you are likely a concrete random, too.
You don't need to follow a step-by-step and you can jump back and forth between ideas. You find brainstorming so much fun that you could go on forever. You like to find new ways to solve real-world problems.
In school, you might have raised your hand and said,
"Wait! I think there is another way to do it!"
You like imagining and inventing and looking at questions that don't have a 'right' answer. And you find it very hard to turn down a creative challenge.
When you are solving a problem, you probably like to work on your own.
I mean, "Just find me a space in the corner and leave me alone."
Right?
As a concrete random, I didn't always fit in in school. I needed to keep going with that math problem until I figured it out myself.
And sometimes I had trouble on the playground.
"But these are the rules."
"I know. But what if we played it this way instead?"
Owning my own business is the best because I get to think of all kinds of ideas and try whichever ones I want.
How social media helps me find 'my people'
I heard Twitter described once as a gigantic cocktail party. But the cool part is that—unlike a boring cocktail party—it's much easier to find your people, the ones who really 'get' you.
In fact, you don't always need to search them out. Sometimes they find you.
As a concrete random, I am naturally drawn to people who like to 'play' with ideas. They are the ones who throw out what-if's, who value humor and creativity. The people who are fun and funny.
Like this week. I wrote a new about page for my blog. It was kind of crazy.
Someone else tweeted a link to it and an amazingly talented social media expert I met on Twitter—who is now my friend—read it.
That same day I got an email from the owner of another social media firm who said that our mutual friend recommended me as someone who can write crazy, fun bios.
This woman had a client who needed exactly that.
The connection happened because with Twitter you can put your real self out there and people who need you will find you.
Has social media helped you find your 'people'?
What's been your experience?
Does social media make it easier to attract the people you want to work with, play with, laugh with?
Or have you found it harder to connect with your right, true people?
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