How much are your friends worth?

2010-12-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

580 million? 1.65 billion? 16.6 billion?

If you're up on social media you know those numbers pertain to Myspace, Youtube and of course Facebook. Myspace sold for 580 million dollars, Youtube: 1.65 billion and Mark Zuckerberg's (Facebook's founder) current estimated worth is over 16 billion dollars.

That's a lot of money devoted to casual communication.

So exactly how important is your social life? How much do the people around you mean to you? How important is it for you to share your life with them?

This blog will be a project, an experiment and an opportunity to learn a little bit about each other and hopefully ourselves. Or maybe it'll just be a collection of short stories that five people (hopefully) read on occasion.

The concept:

Every week I will meet at least one new person, learn as much as I can about them and then post my experience on here. Certain guidelines must be met:

- it should be a person I would not have met without this project

- the interaction should be genuine; it will not be an interview

- I will attempt to meet a variety of people from different backgrounds, ages, regions, professions etc

- names and identifying information will be changed or excluded to protect the privacy of each individual

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As an only child I spent a great deal of time on my own. And yes, I do share traits of the "only child syndrome" I think I'm special. I try to do everything on my own. I don't like to ask for help. I like my space.

All of this is amazing, but it has its limitations. As I propel further along in time I'm beginning to learn just how important relationships with other people are and how big of a role interdependence plays in our success as individuals. Correction. Our effectiveness as individuals. (Werd up Stephen Covey)

Interdependence is and ought to be as much the ideal of man as self-sufficiency. Man is a social being.

- Mohandas Gandhi

I firmly believe that anything I do for myself should also have a positive effect on those around me. As I embark on my quest to build relationships, connect with the world around me and grow as a human being I invite you along.

There's over six billion people on this planet. You're not going to meet them all, but this will help...

The People Project

How much are your friends worth?