Importance of Acquaintances

September 7, 2009

Interview with Melinda Blau author of Consequential Strangers: The Power of People Who Don't Seem to Matter. . . But Really Do

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Mike Carruthers:
Sure you have friends but you also have other important people in your life – just not AS important. They are "consequential strangers."

Let me give you an example; you have a mechanic and you don’t think much about him until your car breaks down but having that mechanic is a very, very important part of your life.

Melinda Blau, author of the book Consequential Strangers

Do you have many co-workers or your neighbors? The thing is, our intimates know what we know and they think the way we think. Consequential strangers by definition are different – so, they bring us novelty and new information.

Consequential strangers are usually people we share one thing in common with - we play golf with them or they’re our neighbor or shopkeeper.

And we can learn something from them. So, for example, if  you have a problem and you mull it over with your family, then you take that problem to someone else, he or she may suddenly have a totally different slant on it and say, “Did you consider this or did you consider that?” And that’s what consequential strangers are good for.

Melinda says, you discover how important consequential strangers are when you move to a new city, as she did when she moved to Northampton, Massachusetts.

I just needed to be able to walk down the street and recognize somebody. To walk into a store and have them know something that I liked. I couldn’t do that when I first got to Northampton because I had no consequential strangers.

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here.