Driving The President…Around

I am not easily impressed by people, titles often mean very little to me because I know from experience how easy it is to set up a website, create business cards and build an image/brand from nothing to something.

However I try to look at the individual I am speaking with and or listening to and determine from what I know if there is something more than meets the eye because there often is.

And if experience has taught me anything it is that many people don’t toot their own horn or recognize they have done something special or remarkable.

Sometimes it is because of humility and sometimes it is because they aren’t aware that what they do or have done is truly novel.

Ask me to share with you the names of five, ten or 15 historical figures that I would like to meet and spend time with and I’ll have no problem giving you a list of names.

That is not hard to do…at all.

Long time readers here have seen quotes from numerous notable figures like Churchill, Einstein and or Ralph Waldo Emerson among others.

But I don’t think I have written a post about who I would like to meet and or speak with or provided any qualifications for what it would take to gain my interest there so I probably should put one together sometime.

In the interim let me share something with you.

Put Your Politics Aside

In a moment you can click on a link for an episode of Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, it is the Jerry Seinfeld show where he and another comedian drive around in a cool car and have a conversation about stuff.

But the episode I just linked to isn’t a normal one, it is one with President Obama.

I say put your politics aside because if I had the opportunity to spend time with any president I would do so in a heartbeat, regardless of whether I agree with their politics or not.

That is because I am certain they would have some fascinating stories and I would love to have the opportunity to speak with them and see what they are like without a team of advisers providing talking points and ideas.

I’d want to ask them certain questions myself and try to gain the kind of inside perspective you can’t get any other way.

FWIW, I am not solely focused on presidents or world leaders. There are scientists, writers, athletes and philosophers that I’d want to speak with.

All because I find people fascinating and because I am curious to see what lies under the surface. Did they get to where they were at because of luck, hard work, timing, a combination of all.

How many of them have done amazing things because they have a natural talent and it just helped them do something amazing.

Driving The President…Around

Seinfeld’s conversation with President Obama is probably a good example of the sort of conversation I would want to have.

It is not just the hard, serious questions I want to ask, but some of the sort of, goofy and mundane that interest me.

Granted there is a presumption of significant time for these conversations and you probably need it because you need to develop a rapport or some sort of connection before you ask some of them.

But I figure if you are given the opportunity to have that conversation with one of the people on your list it probably comes with the time you need.

After all it is not limited to those who are alive, it includes any one from any where and any time so if you are working under that kind of open structure why would time be limited anyway.