Your sphere of influence is larger than you think
I once was going to create a graph of everyone who: 1) I’ve met, and 2) can recall their name from memory. I thought it was an interesting project and would be insightful. (Spoiler: it was.)
Well, I began to create the graph and it got overwhelmingly large very quickly.
Whether it’s because I have a great memory or that I’m actually bad at remembering how many people I’ve talked to, I’m not sure. Either way, I kept thinking of people, and it was clear my graph would be massive.
So, I limited it down to who I knew personally. That is, those whom I’ve talked to personally.
After a while I gave up (I know: those dangerous words!).
Even though I’m arguably not that great at making the effort to meet or talk to new people, my “sphere” was still large.
Sometimes we think that our sphere of influence is very small. What I realized, though, is that when you touch one person in your sphere—even a close person like a brother or sister—you are second hand touching into their sphere of influence too.
It’s amazing to think about, and if you do, I doubt you’ll come away with anything less than awe (like I did). Not sure I recommend trying the creating a graph part though. ;)